Leaving Home
by Denial
Summary: A restless Rogue leaves the X-Men to deal with her own issues. After several years, she returns. Romy.
1. Leaving

AN: Real quick, this was something that I wrote up because I'd been trying to take a break from my other fic and get some new ideas floating around in my head. Right now, I have no real plans for this and may just leave it as is. But hey, I figured as long as I wrote it, I might as well post it. Oh yea, and this is my first attempt at accents. I suck. Badly.

* * *

Rogue huddled on the ground, fighting the tears that threatened to break her hard won control. Normally she didn't care what people said but their newest nickname for her, whispered just loudly enough for her to hear through the halls, had hit a soft spot.

Vampire.

She knew that they were referencing her clothes and make-up but what they didn't realize was how close to true that was. She was a vampire. But instead of blood, she took peoples souls. She was a parasite, needing others powers. And that was what scared her the most. She was beginning to need to touch. It was like a drug, that heady rush of memories and feelings flooding into her. Touching a mutant was particularly intoxicating, the power rising through her giving her a sense of control that she never had with her own powers.

She was beginning to feel like some sort of mutant junkie. She would find herself staring at people's skin, wondering what their memories were. What their powers would feel like. The more she thought about it, the more she would play with her gloves, snapping and unsnapping the buttons that kept them on.

And it seemed like the more she fought it, the more the temptation to touch was there. If she did actually touch someone it was only a short release from the craving and when it returned, it was worse than ever.

She was sick of always fighting. Fighting the voices in her head, fighting her emotions, fighting her peers. Sick of fighting for control over her own thoughts and body. She was even sick of fighting the 'enemy'. They weren't really the enemy. They were just soldiers following orders. Like her. After all, it was hard to hate anyone you really knew. And Rogue knew her enemy all too well, having been most of them.

Literally.

But Rogue knew herself too well. She was too stubborn to simply stop fighting, no matter how much she may have wanted to. But she was beginning to question what she was fighting for. Mutant rights? It sounded all well and good but occasionally, seeing the kind of destructive power that some mutants wielded, she wondered if the bigots weren't right. Maybe mutants were too dangerous to live with humans. She didn't want mutants locked away or anything but she had seen too many people get hurt to truly believe in Xavier's dreams of coexisting.

But Xavier's mission was still the best option she had. Magneto had yet to realize that he had become the very thing that he feared and hated. He was the cruel suppressor of a group of people, based purely on their race. He had become so consumed by his hatred that he could no longer see himself clearly. Rogue occasionally wondered what would happen if Magneto ever did realize what he had become.

As for the Humans First and similar groups, they were just as scared. They saw the world around them changing and spinning out of their control. They desperately were fighting to get that control back and, like most creatures, they were at their most dangerous when they were feeling threatened. They weren't evil. Just horribly scared. And that fear had taken over them until they didn't see the people they were hurting, only symbols of that fear.

Rogue sighed and stared at the ground. She wasn't sure if she could keep doing this, keep living like this. Her heart wasn't with the team like it seemed to be for the others at the Institute. People like Scott and Jean never seemed to doubt that what they were doing was the right thing. But Rogue knew that there were other paths. Evan had taken one. It had hurt the X-Men to watch one of their own turn down another path, walk away from them, but Rogue understood. The Moorlocks were able to give Evan the feeling of protection and belonging that he had wanted. Underground, in the sewers and subway tunnels, there were no humans to worry about upsetting or hurting when one couldn't control ones power.

It was a testament to Dr. McCoy's inner strength that he hadn't gone into a similar hiding. He still was willing to risk dealing with normal people, risk their fear and hate because of his appearance. Even Kurt, for all that se loved her adoptive brother, didn't have that kind of strength. But he was slowly building it. His faith in God and his friends support was beginning to build up that kind of inner strength that would someday allow him to walk down the streets without his image inducer on.

Rogue didn't have it. She knew it. Late at night, when she was being honest with herself, she admitted that she was hiding more than Evan or Kurt ever would. They at least let people know why they were hiding. Rogue lied to those around her, telling them that she didn't want human contact, physical or emotional. But the truth was she craved it. Obsessed over it. Needed it. But it was forbidden fruit and so, by pushing the others away, she protected both them and herself.

She grabbed the crumpled piece of paper out of her backpack and looked at it.

Her GED. She could end it all now. Stop going to school. Stop forcing herself to deal with the snide remarks and vicious whispers. All she had to do was tell people that she had this. She had gotten it a couple months ago, at the same time when she had gone through the courts to get herself declared her own guardian and an adult. The Professor was the only one who knew about any of it, since he had helped her understand the legal paperwork and processes. He had simply accepted her need to be independent, to sever any ties to Mystique or Destiny, and offered her a place to stay. Technically, there was nothing but bad memories tying her to Bayville these days. But she was still reluctant to cut ties here. Even bad memories have a certain comfort when compared to the unknown.

She was both free and tethered here and the tether was beginning to chaff.

She needed to get away from here. Get away from all these memories, all the temptations to use her powers. She needed a chance for some peace in which to find out who the Rogue really was and maybe gain some of that control that she had been fighting for for so long.

Without even realizing it, she had made a decision. One that had been in her mind for a long time. But it had taken a stupid, childish taunt to finally push her into making it.

Standing up, she stretched, feeling muscles popping in her back after being tense for so long. It was like a huge weight had been lifted from her and she felt a smile trying to push its way on to her face for the first time in a long time.

* * *

The Professor listened to his student as she explained herself. He had known this was coming for awhile. Rogue was like a daughter to him and, like any father, he hated to see her grow up and face the world on her own. But she was about to do that and he wasn't going to stop her. Like Logan, Rogue had to fight her own battles herself and stand on her own two feet before she would ever allow others to help her. In many ways, those two were two sides of the same coin, sharing similar, tormented souls. He knew that in each other the two had found unexpected friends and wondered how Logan would take Rogue's leaving.

But Xavier had faith that Rogue would return eventually. This was her home, where her family was and he knew Rogue too well. She may try to be distant but she had a fierce streak of loyalty in her for anyone who she decided to call friend or family. The others may not have seen it, but it was Rogue who defended the X-Men from abuse and Rogue who checked up on people when they were in the sickbay. And as much as she may fight with Kurt over being his sister, Xavier knew that Rogue had considered Kurt her brother for a long time and loved him.

"We will miss you, Rogue. You will always have a place here, should you choose to return." Xavier said, trying to convey the truth of his feelings through the oddly formal words.

"Thank ya, Professor." Rogue said, and offered him a small smile before leaving his office.

Xavier wheeled himself over to his window and stared out at his Institute, contemplating mutants, their powers and the sacrifices they were forced to make, his hands resting on his useless legs.

* * *

Remy grinned happily at the fille behind the counter, ringing up his purchase. Three packs of cards, two packs of cigarettes and a bottle of bourbon. Ah, the life of a bachelor. The cashier handed him back his fake id after barely glancing at it and Remy quickly stashed the cards and cigs in the different pockets of his coat and grabbed the bottle.

Tonight was a night for celebrating. It was Mardi Gras and since he was _persona non grate_ back where the party really was, he was going to have his own party. He was going to pick up a fille or two, maybe a couple of hommes and celebrate till he passed out. Maybe, if things got really fun, he'd get in a fight or two.

At least, that had been the plan.

The plans changed the moment he saw her walking down the street. She looked so confident and sure of herself and for the first time since he had met her, she looked happy.

"Bonjure, petite!" he said, moving to walk beside her and on the look out for one of those nasty left hooks of hers. Instead, she surprised him.

"Hey Swamp Rat." She said, flashing him a dazzling smile that left him more stunned than any blow could have.

"You feeling alright, petite?" Remy asked, confused.

"Of course. Why?" she said, walking into a store, letting him follow in her wake.

"Well, usually you've yelled at Remy by now or tried to rearrange certain key parts of his anatomy." Remy admitted frankly.

Rogue turned and laughed at him, and that laugh did weird things to his insides, "Sorry. I'll have to abuse you later. I'm busy right now."

Remy's curiosity got the better of him as he turned to look at what Rogue was buying. She was looking at several large, surplus military canvas duffle bags.

"What ya up to there chere?"

"Need something to pack all my stuff up in." Rogue muttered, looking critically at a large black bag.

"Ya goin' somewhere."

"Mm hmm." she said, looking at the tag before heading towards the counter.

Remy sighed. This was worse than twenty questions. And the fille wasn't even paying attention to him. At least when she was yelling at him, he had he complete attention. It wasn't all that flattering to be ignored in favor of a bag. So much for his being irresistible to the fairer sex.

Remy continued to follow her around to different stores for awhile until she suddenly spun to glare at him, "What the 'ell ya tink you are doin', Swamp Rat?"

Remy grinned, now here was the Roguey he knew and loved, "Followin' ya, of course."

"Why are ya followin' meh?" Rogue ground out, familiar anger leaking into her voice.

"Remy follow all de belle femmes." He said, "And you are a tres belle femme."

Rogue blushed slightly before pushing past him, "I don't have time for this."

"Why don't you let Remy buy ya dinner, chere. Call it a goin' away gift."

Rogue glared at him but before she could reply Remy added, "If ya don't, Remy just be forced to follow ya everywhere."

Rogue blew at her white bangs, which had once again fallen in her eyes and glared at him, "Fahn. Anything to get rid of ya, Swamp Rat."

"Anythin', chere?" Remy couldn't resist.

Luckily, Remy could dodge.

* * *

"So, where are ya goin'?" Remy asked as they waited for their food.

After much debate, they had ended up at Perkins. It was the place you went when nothing else was appealing or open. Which meant that people ended up there all the time. Rogue had the menu memorized.

"Why ya wanna know?" Rogue asked, a touch of suspicion coloring her voice.

"Maybe Remy wanta know where he'll be living next."

Rogue laughed. She couldn't help it. The man was a charmer and a flirt. But there was something about his flirting that, instead of making her uncomfortable like it did with others, set her at ease. She could laugh at him and fight with him and still talk to him normally the next day. That wasn't something she could say about anyone else.

"Well then, I guess its a good thang I haven't decided yet. If I don't know, you can't follow." Rogue said with a smile.

"Den why ya leavin'?" Remy asked, a note of concern creeping into his voice.

"Haven't ya ever wanted ta just get away for awhile, see knew places and faces? I just need to get out of this town for awhile." Rogue said, allowing herself to be honest with the man if front of her.

"I understand, chere."

Rogue looked up and searched his face. He never referred to himself in first person unless he was serious. And she could see it in his face. Something was going on behind those demon eyes of his, some old pain was being remembered and for a moment Rogue was tempted to touch him, skin to skin, and share that pain.

She shook her head, as if the physical action would shake out the thought. This was why she had to get out of here. Too much temptation.

She looked up at Remy and saw him looking at her. Saw the way his unruly hair fell in his red on black eyes and the way his trench coat hugged his upper body, highlighting firm muscles.

Yep. Way too much temptation in this town.

* * *

Somehow Remy convinced Rogue to go out to a club with him after dinner. It hadn't actually been that hard. It was as if, now that she was leaving, she didn't feel that desperate need to keep him at a distance. He was no longer 'the enemy' since she was no longer an X-Man. She wasn't betraying anyone's trust by liking him and hanging out with him. She was finally free to like or dislike people based upon her own feelings rather than the feelings of her team.

They eventually ended up laying outside on the grass overlooking the city. They had finished off Remy's bottle of bourbon and played several hands of high-stakes go-fish before eventually falling asleep together, Remy's coat pulled over the both of them like a blanket.

In the morning, Remy slipped something into Rogues hand as they parted. After he was gone, she finally looked down at the scrap of paper.

'Rogue,

Don't forget to come home eventually. And drop me a line once in awhile to prove you're still alive.'

Underneath was scribbled an e-mail address.

Rogue smiled as she looked at it.

"Dumb Cajun." she muttered, carefully folding the piece of paper up and putting it in her wallet.

Guess this meant she had to get a computer.


	2. Coming to Terms

AN: Okay, quick note here people. This is wierd. Especially for me. I'll admit it. There is almost no dialog, and the story isn't told like everything is happening now. Its more like things are being retold. Arg. Whatever. I just started writing this again and this is what came out. I kinda like it but I realize that other people probably won't so it is okay to say it sucks. But hey, I'm an author playing with differant styles of writing. Not all experioments are going to work. Alright, I'm procrastinating letting you read. I know. My bad. I'll go shut up now.

* * *

Part II

She could admit it later, when everything was said and done, that she had left the Institute with less then wonderful planning. She just knew she had to get away. Far away. It had actually been the Professor who had suggested a tour of Europe. By staying at Youth hostiles and the like, Rogue was able to actually save a lot of money. And after all, it wasn't like she wasn't already used to sharing living space with others.

And so she had headed out.

She spent the first couple months in Europe walking. It had been strange, never quite knowing where she was going or how far her feet would get her. But she had done it and somehow it ended up being one of the best times of her life. She had been completely alone and yet, for the first time in a long time, she hadn't felt lonely.

She had finally been totally free. She was able to indulge in any whim she wanted. If she wanted to stay up to watch the dawn or check out some little hole in the wall town, there was no one to tell her no or that she had other, more important things to do.

Eventually she had gotten a job at a small art supplies store in a small town in England called Dragonsville. Truthfully, it was the name of the town alone that had forced her to detour in her wandering. The town hadn't really been anything special but somehow she ended up stopping there and deciding this was where she wanted to settle down. At least for awhile. It had been something that was perfect for her. The pay at her store wasn't all that great but the hours were flexible and the clientele never looked twice at the young Goth.

The one thing that she hadn't expected when she left was Logan. Somehow, once every few weeks, he managed to track her down no matter where she was. Even when she hadn't known where she was, Logan had. He never asked her to come back like she had silently dreaded he would. She knew that if Logan asked, she would have come. But he never did. He just came to make sure she was alright.

Once she had asked him if the Professor was the one sending him but he had shook his head and grunted a negative.

And over the first year that she was gone, the two of them became friends. It kind of scared her sometimes how much a like they were. There was this sense that Logan would understand everything she said and felt and still be there for her. And yet, she never felt any sort of romantic interest in him. He was like the other half of herself, just as tormented and gruff, and there was no way she could ever feel anything for him except a deep friendship.

She actually read a book that talked about something similar. Two friends were explaining their relationship. The man claimed that they were soul mates, two sides of the same coin. But true soul mates were too alike to ever be interested in each other in any sort of sexual way.

So Logan was her soul mate. Her protector and friend. He was the only one that she let hug her when she felt like crying. He was the only one she allowed herself to get drunk with, knowing that he would look out for both of them.

He was the one that she trusted, that if she ever lost control again, would be the one to take her out.

He knew all her secrets, her hates and her loves. And in return, slowly, she began to learn all of his.

Truthfully, she had absorbed him once or twice in the past and gotten some of his memories. But somehow, hearing him tell her about his past himself was different, more personal and real to her.

And it was this that helped her the most in fighting her own cravings for touch. As Logan told her about his past, sharing stories about life, she found she liked the feeling of trust gained. When she touched someone and absorbed their memories, she always felt like a theif. But gaining the right to those memories the hard way filled some void inside her. And while the temptation remained, it wasn't as strong. She didn't feel trapped within her skin and desperate to flee.

Logan told her about his growing attraction to Jean one night while both of them were more than slightly blitzed and in return, she blabbed out her continued attraction to Scott. They had made a couple stupid, drunken plans to break the pair up.

Another time, Logan had found her after learning some more information about his past and they had talked together, trying to figure out how the new information fit into the larger puzzle of Wolverine.

No one else ever came to find her. Logan mentioned once that Kurt had wanted too but wasn't able due to school and the need of him by the X-Men. A few others too had wanted to come but couldn't for similar reasons. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on ones out look, they all had her e-mail address and IM. There were nights when Rogue would open her e-mail to find over a dozen messages from her friends and old teammates telling her all about their lives and the gossip. It was actually pretty interesting at times hearing the same story from a half dozen different points of view.

The one address that she had slowly begun to look for first though was Remy's. She couldn't remember when she had started to read his e-mails first but it had become a sort of tradition. His e-mail's were always full of shameless flirting, jokes and the occasional shrewd observation of the people he dealt with. She remembered, when she had still been wandering, sending out that first e-mail to the Acolyte, wondering why she was doing it. It hadn't been anything too special, just a couple lines saying hey, and that she was alive. She hadn't even allowed herself to expect a response so when she had one the very next day she had been floored.

And so they had started talking. Sending e-mails back and forth at a more constant rate than with anyone else. At first she had always been on her guard, making sure that she never told him exactly where she was or anything about the X-Men and always looking for hidden traps in his e-mails. Eventually though, she stopped censoring herself so much and became more comfortable telling him things about herself and her life.

He could always seem to make her blush, even from several thousand miles away. She managed to laugh off most of his flirting, knowing it was almost second nature to him. Every once in awhile though she would wish that some of the flirting was real. If nothing else, as an ego boost. Who wouldn't want to be called beautiful?

Eventually she began to think of Remy as a friend. After all, he was the X-Men's enemy and she was no longer an X-Man. That's what her whole leaving was about, the freedom to think for herself. And that meant that she could choose who her friends were.

Others had gotten a hold of her e-mail as well. Kitty had apparently given it to Lance which meant the rest of the Brotherhood had gotten it. Somehow she ended up talking to Wanda one night and ever since then the two of them had also become friends. She loved to hear about Wanda's dealings with Toad and how Lance and Tabbitha were fighting over Lance's Jeep.

Logan never sent e-mails. He just showed up in person, which was fine with her.

Xavier sent her the occasional note, asking if she was alright and if she needed anything but they were never frequent. More like a father, checking in with an adult child.

* * *

She was in Europe a year before she was asked out on a date. And by a completely normal human. She had opened her mouth to tell him no but somehow the word yes came out instead. Mike was a co-worker. A nice guy, fairly cute with sandy brown hair and brown eyes. Nothing special. Except that she told him about herself and he didn't run away screaming. Instead he asked her out for a second date. And then a third.

She kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, to find out that he was some evil henchman of some mutant haters group or was actually a mutant working for some other ultra evil mutant or something equally horrible. But he wasn't. He was exactly what he appeared to be. A guy interested in her for her.

There was something about that simplicity that attracted her and held on to her. She never had to worry about if he had ulterior motive for asking her out and she could allow herself to relax around him because he knew she was a mutant.

He was the first one to kiss her through one of her thin silk scarves. She had been so surprised that she had just stood there. She could still remember his chuckle. He had made some stupid comment about having that kind of effect on all women which had snapped her out of her shock and made her playfully hit him.

And then there was the night they broke up. It had been a mutual decision. They had both realized that they were just friends. They didn't love each other and neither one saw the relationship going anywhere. Instead they had decided to just be friends.

But it had still hurt. A part of her had recognized the fact that it hurt not because she was losing a boyfriend but because she was losing something normal and sane. He had been like a touchstone for her, reminding her that not everyone in the world was involved in the wars between mutants and humans, that not everyone thought that girls walking through walls and government conspiracies were normal, everyday things that had to be dealt with. And if she had loved anything in their relationship, it had been that normalcy.

And that night she had gone home and opened her e-mail, and ended up pouring out her heart in an letter to Remy. She had told him about Mike before but only briefly. It was like even mentioning Mike to the others would somehow taint his normalcy, bring him into her little super hero world.

But now Mike wasn't hers anymore and she had to tell someone or she would burst. She couldn't keep it all in. She could never remember what she typed that night, tears blurring the screen and depression making her thoughts fuzzy. All she remembered was simply sitting down, all set to type out her usual cheerful banter with Remy and instead writing a piece of her soul.

She should have just deleted it after she wrote it. After all, she was Rogue. She didn't tell others her weaknesses. She was always the cold and aloof one. Only Logan was allowed to know that there were chinks in her armor. And Remy wasn't Logan. Remy was dangerous.

But she sent it.

She sent that piece of herself across the little electrical wires, to a person half a world away who had once been her enemy. She couldn't bring herself to regret it, as much as she wanted to. There was a small, satisfied part of her that actually was glad she sent it, glad she told another person that she wasn't some cold, unfeeling thing.

She spent the night hugging her pillow and staring numbly at the far wall wishing that there was someone there to hold her. But there wasn't. Only Logan ever held her and he wasn't there that night.

She would never know how he did it but he did.

The next day, at work a man came and handed her a cell phone. He didn't tell her who it was from and he wasn't from any sort of delivery service. It had been odd. And had sent her paranoia levels skyrocketing.

She had spent the day inspecting it, looking through the different options on the phone, looking for some clue as to who it was from. She asked everyone she worked with if they had sent it to her and even ended up calling up a few other people she knew on the art store's phone to see if they knew anything. She considered calling up the Institute but decided that she didn't want to worry anyone. After all, it was just a cell phone.

Nothing to panic about. Right?

That night, just as she walked out of work it rang. She stared at it, almost waiting for something to blow up on her. Eventually, on the third ring she cautiously answered it. The first words she heard were, "Does chere need Remy to kill de boy or just permanently injure him?"

She had laughed so hard it had brought tears to her eyes, partially in relief that the phone wasn't part of some grand evil scheme and partially because it was just nice to hear Remy's voice after over a year. She was actually amazed that she even recognized it. But then again, with an opening line like that, he would be hard to not recognize.

He never did tell her how he got her the phone. He was always mysterious about stuff like that. She had accused him once of just liking the feeling of knowing more than everyone else. He never denied it. That night though they talked and laughed on the phone for what seemed like forever and no time at all. He told her stories about his life and debated with her on stupid little things of no real importance and flirted with her, making her both oddly pleased and irritated.

After that night the e-mails from Remy came less frequently. They still sent them back and forth but instead she got phone calls a few times every week. Sometimes they were long conversations and other times they were just brief check ins to see if she was alive. He never gave her his number and Rogue never asked. She knew that it was safer for him to call her. Even if they weren't enemies anymore didn't mean that Remy didn't still work for Magneto. All it would take was one badly timed phone call to screw everything up.

Rogue also never got a cell phone bill. That was not something she was just willing to ignore. She knew that Remy had to be paying for it and knew that the bill had to be pretty high. They actually talked a lot and these were all international calls. Well, at least she was guessing they all were. She kept telling him that she wanted to at least pay for half and Remy, the dumb Cajun that he was, kept telling her that gentlemen always paid. And as much as Rogue tried to explain feminine liberation to him, he insisted on doing things his way. As with most things he did, it was both sweet and damnably irritating.

She told Logan about Remy's phone. He wasn't exactly pleased. In a lot of ways, Logan was like one half of the battle in Rogues head, arguing that Remy, even if he wasn't her enemy was just a charmer and a flirt. But Rogue had an entire ocean between her and the flirt and that gave her a measure of security that she wouldn't have had if she still lived in Bayville. And Logan accepted this. Maybe not gracefully but he did accept it. And he tried to listen to her when she talked about Remy without constantly growling or popping claws.

Secretly, in her heart of hearts, Rogue was glad to have these two men in her life. They were supports for her, propping her up and giving her a measure of stability that she didn't think that she would have had without them. They were her chosen family.

She wasn't sure when, exactly, she stopped thinking of Remy as a friend. Just one day she noticed that when he talked about other women, her gut clenched and she found herself wondering if they were prettier than she was, or smarter, or more worldly. She found herself wishing that the Swamp Rat could, or would, visit her like Logan did. She hadn't seen him in a few years and she was beginning to wonder if he was still as good looking as he had been when she was still in high school.

She didn't want to ask Logan about things like that. It was embarrassing enough as it was, but Logan was having a hard enough time dealing with her and Remy being friends. She shuddered to think what it would have been like if she mentioned being more than friends.

But that was just it. While Remy was living on a completely different continent from her she didn't have to worry about stupid little details like mutant powers or old differences. She could allow herself to pretend that Remy and her could actually stand a chance if they dated.

Rogue did date a few others. She had somehow found the mutant society circles in England and floated through them. It was surprising how much acceptance just Xavier's name could get her. He had been better known than she ever realized. She found herself often being hunted down by people looking to find out more about Xavier's dream and Institute.

After two and a half years in Europe, the European Union was beginning to feel more and more pressure to make some decisions on the mutant issue. Like in the States, groups protesting both for mutant registration and mutant rights were growing in numbers. Unfortunately, the registration ranks seemed to be swelling in numbers faster than the mutant rights ranks.

It was on her way to work one day that Rogue got caught in an anti-mutant march. Hundred of angry screaming people were marching down the street, screaming about the dangers of mutants to society. Personally, Rogue had just felt like screaming about the dangers of protestors to poor working girls like herself who were just trying to cross the damn street.

And that's when they met resistance. A small group of mutants had taken the march personally and decided to send their own message. They began attacking the demonstrators and the angry mob turned into a frightened, hysterical mass of humanity.

Rogue had had enough. She was already late for work because of all this stupidity. Somehow she managed to fight her way through the fleeing people to the attacking mutants. Going up the their leader, she smiled politely, introduced herself as a fellow mutant and shook his hand. Skin to skin.

Even before the leader, Calvyn, fell to the ground, Rogue could feel his connection to the air and used to push the other three mutants back, away from the people. As they fought the force of her wind, Rogue had walked forward and absorbed the man with the rocks for skin. It wasn't until she absorbed him that she began to have any sort of plan. All she knew was that she had been an X-Men too long to let mutants like these attack people.

Taking in the stone skin and strength, she made short work of the other two, who had still been trying to figure out what had happened to their plan. Using the wind, she created three small tornadoes, each one picking up a fallen body and hefted the last on herself, careful to prevent any further skin on skin contact. Already she could feel the headache that always seemed to come when she touched anyone. The more people she touched, the worse the headache.

She took them to their leader's apartment, twisting the doorknob and breaking the lock to let herself in and deposited the four mutants on the floor. It was the best she could do. She couldn't let the cops arrest them but she didn't want them out and causing trouble so she had brought them here.

She had left a note, tacked onto the inside of the door, telling them to be good children and play nice with the stupid humans. It was the best she could do. She had wanted to explain about how dangerous it was to attack humans. How it only encouraged their fear and hate. She wanted to warn them about the secret government labs that might exist that used mutants as test subjects. She wanted to say so much, explain all the things that she had seen and learned over the years to them but instead she wrote a small note and left, calling in to work and telling them about there had been a riot and she had gotten caught in it. The guy working had volunteered to pull her shift for her and she had gladly accepted, promising to return the favor.

And somehow she became an X-Man again. But not really. She wasn't under Xavier anymore and yet she had started fighting for his dream again, for peace between humans and mutants. She stopped the mutants from fighting the humans and stopped the humans from attacking the mutants. And she wasn't alone either. There were a few that she had met during her time in England that began to do the same. They always seemed to be looking to her for direction, asking how to deal with the things that were coming up. All of them were better in a fight than she was, their powers being more offensive and long range, and most of them were smarter. And yet they followed her direction and lead. It began to make her feel like some sort of mother duck with her little ducklings following her everywhere.

When she complained about it to Logan he had just laughed and pointed out he had the same problem at the Institute and that Rogue should be glad that all her followers were falling in line so well and no longer teenagers. He had to deal with hormonal driven kids who were sometimes convinced that they knew better than their leaders. And he had Scott. Who really was in line to lead this rag tag group but still grated on Logan's nerves occasionally.

Rogue had simply sighed. In a lot of ways she wished she did have a Scott. Scott was a straight laced, follow the rules kind of guy but he was dependable. She knew that he cared about his team more than anything and would lay down his life for anyone on it. His loyalty to Xavier was unquestionable and his confidence and leadership had always been something to depend on.

But now it was others looking to her, depending on her. That was just wrong somehow. She was the loner, the scary introvert that pushed everyone away. So how the hell had she ended up playing team leader when she could have sworn she quit the team?

But here she was, having daily martial arts practices and helping mutants to gain control over their powers. She had figured out that if she absorbed someone, then she had to learn how to control their powers, something that she had always seemed to do instinctually. But if she concentrated and paid attention, she could figure out what she was doing and tell the mutant that she had absorbed. It was a bit like trying to explain how to talk to someone. Most of the time you just opened your mouth and sound came out but if you really stopped and paid attention, you began to notice how you forced air over your vocal chords to creat that sound.

Her apartment now seemed to always have someone in it. It had become some sort of safe haven for any mutant looking to hide for a few days. The only things that remained off limits were her bed, her laptop and her cell. Everything else, including the food in her kitchen and the clothes in her closet seemed to be up for grabs. She now understood why the Professor had a mansion. There were days that she wished she did.

Over the course of the next year, Rogue felt like bashing her head against a wall daily. Problems and people and situations that she had never wanted to deal with or ever expected to deal with landed squarely in her lap. There were days when she would look around at her life and spend several minutes trying desperately to figure out how it had all happened so quickly. And then something would happen and she would have to put off thinking about it while she concentrated on the next series of catastrophes.

She began to pray.

It had been a long time since she had prayed. But she felt the need now. Before she had ignored God, relying on her own strength and intelligence. But she knew she didn't have what it took to help these people coming to her anymore. So she began to pray. To pray for the strength to protect them, the intelligence to lead and to not fail them. It began to be a silent mantra in the back of her head as she went through her days.

The only true comforts lay in Logan's visits and Remy's phone calls. Logan helped her keep things organized and scared the living daylights out of everyone so that after he left they were all so glad to only have to deal with Rogue again that they were good little children for awhile.

Remy was the only one who seemed able to make her laugh anymore and she guarded her time talking to him jealously. He would listen to her rants about the mutants trampling through her life and make jokes and tell her how things could be worse.

She began to think that she was actually falling in love with him.

But since it was impossible, she refused to consider it and continued to focus on the more immediate issues. Like the fact that someone had eaten all her ice cream and not replaced it!


	3. Returning

Rogue sat one her bed, curled up, hugging her knees to her chest. In front of her lay a set of journals, each one carefully wrapped and packaged in a box. They were Irene's. Her inheritance. Proof that Irene really was dead. That the woman who had taken care of her for so long, raised her when she was a small child and protected her from her own powers, was really gone forever.

Rogue had received the legal documents announcing the mutant known as Destiny's death today along with the journals when a lawyer had shown up at her front door. She had signed off on all the paperwork, provided proof of identity and that had been it. It wasn't until she had opened the box and looked inside that what the lawyer had said had truly sunk in.

She wanted to cry. It felt like something that one should cry over. But instead all she could do was sit there. A small, detached part of her wondered how Irene had died. Was is natural causes or some mutant haters or had she gotten caught in one of the fights between Magneto and the X-Men? Was it a quick death? Or...not?

The lawyer hadn't known. Actually, he hadn't known much of anything and she had realized fairly quickly that questioning him was useless.

She knew that the others were outside the door to her room. Nothing could be kept a secret around here and the second the lawyer had shown up everyone had know what was up. Now they were all walking around on eggshells trying to decide if they should talk to her or just leave her alone for awhile.

Rogue smiled sadly, listening to the hushed voices. It had bee less than a year since she had finally broken down and bought herself a house. Those people out there were the reason why. Her old apartment just hadn't been large enough for the numbers of mutants that kept showing up at her place. And besides, it was nicer without having to worry about neighbors you shared walls with. It wasn't a huge place but it at least gave her more space to work with.

She had also finally begun to make some strides in controlling her powers due to those people. The old adage of helping others helps yourself turned out to be true. She had been absorbing so many different mutants in order to help them control their powers that she had been forced to take a look at her own powers. She still couldn't control her primary power of absorption but she was now able to control others powers better. She could, for short amounts of time, pull up the powers and memories of any mutant or human that she had ever touched. It made her feel like less of a liability when she went out to deal with mutant riots and such. She was able to better protect both herself and those that followed her instead of sitting on the sidelines until she could get close enough to touch the enemy.

She still wished that she was able to control her primary power but being able to control all the secondary powers had given her options that she had never had before. Her power no longer seemed like such a curse. It wasn't exactly a blessing but it was just one of those things that made her who she was. Rogue.

Rogue sighed. She was letting her mind wander. She knew that a part of it was because she didn't want to think about Irene, so in a defensive maneuver her mind was focusing on anything and everything else that it could come up with. She needed to get out and meditate for awhile. It was something Logan had taught her after she had lost control over the personalities in her head the first time. It calmed her emotions and gave her a certain clarity that she had found invaluable over the years, especially once she was out on her own. It was a clarity that she was in desperate need of right now.

Rogue grabbed her brown leather jacket, checked to make sure she had keys and her cell phone, and headed out. As she walked through the park towards her favorite spot she began to realize just how long it had been since she had gone back to the States. It always seemed like there was no time. But people had probably changed a lot over the years and it would be nice to finally be the one traveling instead of someone else.

Rogue got to her favorite spot, a small secluded area, almost completely surrounded by trees. It gave the illusion of being in one of the old forests that were so popular in myths and fairy tales. Rogue settled down on the ground and took a deep breath. Slowly she repeated the actions that Logan had taught her so long ago, letting go of all the worries and distractions of the world around her to focus on the calm of her own mind.

When she opened her eyes again, she finally felt a small measure of peace for the first time since she had heard the news. She still hadn't come to terms with Irene's death yet but this was at least a beginning. She no longer felt so shaky, like everything was on the verge of collapsing around her.

The trees around her swayed softly in a light breeze and for a second, Rogue looked around her in awe. A few delicate golden leaves were dancing across her path on their way to the ground and the fading sunlight cut through the cover to create brilliant streams of light which contrasted sharply with the night shadows beginning to appear from their daytime hiding places. It was scenes like these that captured Rogue's imagination and made her want to run home and draw. It amazed her that other people seemed perfectly content to ignore all these minor miracles of beauty that happened around them everyday.

'A evenin' this beautiful makes a girl think about playin' hookey forever.'

In a lot of ways, she blamed the art store for corrupting her. But she had been pretty fertile ground for that type of corruption, given her already gothic mentality. She was painting these days, nothing too special but good enough that she could sell the occasional piece to help pay her bills.

As she walked slowly home, she remembered the Institute and what she had been thinking about earlier. She should go back and visit. She was feeling guilty about not having seen Irene before she died. She didn't really want to think about the fact that other friends of hers might someday die without her ever seeing them again.

She was doing some mental calculations in her head trying to figure out if she could afford it. Maybe if she got one of the kids to look at ticket prices on-line for her she could find something in her budget.

By the time she actually walked through her front door she was trying to figure out what to pack and if she should bring people gifts. There were about five people plunked down in front of the tele, watching cartoons when she walked in. She almost laughed at their expressions when they turned to see her. All five of them were little more than kids, mutants whose parents had kicked them out of the house after their powers had emerged. She actually had collected quite a few kids like them over the last year or so. They came and went in her house, crashing where ever they could find space when they needed a place. In many ways she felt like some sort of weird, dysfunctional mother. She had set up house rules that they had to follow and the way they were looking at her now gave her the feeling that they had broken some rule and gotten caught. She had a pretty good feeling that some of the others who had been here earlier had told the kids to be extra good, or something like that, and not bother her. Apparently, now that she was home, they weren't sure how to do that.

"Hey." she said, giving them a small smile and trying to get rid of that 'deer in the headlights' look they were all giving her.

"Hey Rogue." Michelle said quietly.

"Um...hey, we heard about your friend. I'm sorry." Danny muttered, staring at the floor.

"Yea. That really sucks." Mick said, and Michelle, looking horrified at his words, hit him, "What?"

Rogue laughed, "Its okay, Michelle. It does suck. I actually was thinkin' of going back to the States. Maybe see some people that I haven' seen in awhile."

"You're coming back, right?" Sara, sitting on the floor, asked with an oddly panicky look on her face.

"Yea sugah. I'm not abandonin' ya all yet. I just...think I need a little vacation. So I was wonderin' if someone could give me that web site address for the cheap air flight tickets?" Rogue said hopefully.

Danny sighed and stood up, "It'll be faster if I just do it for you."

Rogue reached over and hugged the boy around the shoulders, "I was hopin' you'd say that."

Danny shrugged off her hug and, muttering under his breath about inept, computer illiterate adults, walked over to her laptop and flicked it on. Once the thing was booted up, Rogue watched as the boys fingers became insubstantial and disappeared into the computer. Things flickered too fast across the screen for Rogue to make any sense of them. Danny was the reason that she no longer understood what was on her computer. All she knew was that it was the fastest thing she had ever seen and that it never seemed to crash on her. She had asked him once but had been so overwhelmed by the answer that she had decided that it was better just to let him do whatever he wanted. As long as she still could get her e-mail and use the word processor, she was happy.

A few seconds later Danny called her over, giving her airline prices that were better that anything she had hoped for. She had him book her a seat for a flight leaving the next week and pulled out her phone to call work.

Luckily, she had worked at the art store for so long now that the owner was more than willing to give her time off, especially once she explained that her foster mother had died and she wanted to go back to the States for awhile to see her family. It was the closest thing to the truth that she could say with out having to go into a lot of confusing details.

The next phone call was actually to the Professor. She wanted to let Xavier know that she was coming home and see if she could beg a ride from Logan to her hotel. But somehow, after hanging up the phone she had been convinced to stay at the Institute. Logan had simply refused to drive her to a hotel after the Professor had offered her a room at the school. She wasn't sure whether to feel irritated at having her plans so easily thwarted or happy that the Professor and Logan were so willing to have her stay at the school again.

She walked into her room and pulled out her old army duffle bag and began to make a checklist of what she needed to do before she could leave. She was going to have to pick up a few gifts for her old friends before she left. There were a few other things for herself that might make packing easier. She would also have to get someone to watch her house for her and make sure if anything happened that people here had her phone number and the Institute's number.

Thinking about her phone made her suddenly think of Remy. Should she tell him she was going to be back? Who was she kidding, he would find out. That was one person who always seemed to be in the know. There was no way that she could expect for him not to find out that she was in the States. Alright then, next question. Did she want to see him? Of course. They were friends. Really good friends. How could she not want to see him. So what if he still worked for Magneto. Well, maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to see him if she was staying at the Institute. Not that he would do anything but people might take it the wrong way. So...Did she want to see him? A definite maybe.

Rogue laughed at herself.

'Be honest.' she chided herself. She was scared. Scared that the Remy of the e-mails and phone calls was just an illusion that would pop the moment she dealt with him in person. Scared that he really was as wonderful as he had been on the phone and in all the e-mails. Scared that if she actually saw him in person that all those feelings that she had buried wouldn't stay buried.

* * *

The rest of the days seemed to just fly and before she knew it she was on a plane headed back to New York. In first class. Which was very interesting. And something she would have to talk to Danny about when she got back home. The boy's mutant power made him one of the best hackers in the business, allowing him to play with the electronic pulses themselves that made up the computers people used and sometimes he used his ability to 'help' out others. Since the tickets had all been ordered on-line she hadn't seen them until she arrived at the airport to pick them up. She had a pretty good feeling that her upgrade to first class was evidence of Danny's helping.

Rogue leaned back in her huge seat and stretched without hitting anyone else around her. This was defiantly better than flying coach though. Maybe she wouldn't yell at Danny after all. Just then the stewardess came and offered her a choice of red or white wine in a real glass, not some disposable plastic thing. Rogue smiled as she twirled the stem of the glass in her hand.

She decided that she was just going to give the boy the benefit of the doubt and assume he just found a great deal on tickets and never ask him. After all, she didn't want the kid to think she didn't trust him.

Rogue pulled out one of Irene's journals from her carry-one bag. She had grabbed them at the last minute, figuring that it would give her something to read on the plane. Now she opened the oldest one and began to read. It started when Destiny's powers were first emerging and she was losing her sight. A powerful combination that reinforced something Rogue already knew. Mutants rarely got their powers for free. They always paid some price for them. She had lost the ability to touch, the Professor had lost the ability to walk, Scott to see. And Logan had lost the ability to age and die. It had been that realization that had helped her to deal with her own powers. She realized that she wasn't the only one who had paid for her "gift" and she wasn't even the worst off. The Moorlocks had taught her that.

Rogue became engrossed in her reading. Irene had always been so quiet about herself and her past. There were things in her journal that Rogue had never even guessed at before. But every once in awhile, the writing would change. The older the journal the more of the strange language it was written in until the last few journals were completely written in it. Rogue didn't understand what language these entries were written in but she decided to check it out. If nothing else it would give her something to do.

* * *

When the plane finally landed, Rogue was more than willing to get off. It seemed like ages since she had stood up and walked around. Not to mention she was starving. First class or not, airline food was airline food and therefore inedible.

When she got off the plane she glanced around, unwilling to admit that she was looking more for a Cajun than a Canadian. She had decided to try and surprise Remy by being home. When she had talked to him, she had been very careful not to tell him he plans. She knew that he had picked up on there being something up but she hoped he hadn't figured it out. Still, it wouldn't have surprised her to see him waiting for her in the airport.

But there was no sign of him. Instead Logan appeared and she gave him a hug. He growled at her, knowing she was only hugging him because it was such a non-Wolverine thing to do, but hugged her back.

"Hey Stripes. Lets go grab your other stuff and get out of here." Logan said.

"Can we grab some food? I'm starving." she asked as she watched the baggage carousel for her duffel bag and suitcase.

"Sure. What did you want?" Logan said, snatching the duffel bag as it traveled by.

"Something horribly unhealthy and American." Rogue replied, grinning.

"No problem. I know just the diner." Logan chuckled.

* * *

Rogue sighed and took another sip of her Coke. She was so full. Logan had taken her to a small mom and pop diner. The food tasted so good you knew that it was probably going to clog up all you arteries before you even left the place. It had been just what she needed. She and Logan had spent the time in comfortable silence, each of them devoting their full attention to their food.

She let Logan pay the check and casually walked towards the van Logan had been driving.

"Don't even think about it Stripes." Logan growled from behind her.

"Aw. But I haven't driven in so long." Rogue said with a small pout.

"All the more reason that I'm not going to let you start now." Logan said, hopping into the driver's seat. "Besides, do you even remember what side of the street we drive on here?"

Rogue glared at the older man as they pulled out of the parking lot, "Fine. Maybe I just won't give you your gift then."

"Gift?" Logan said, cocking an eyebrow at her.

"Yea. I got ya a gift." Rogue said, smiling.

"What kind of gift?"

"What do you mean, what kind? The good kind."

Logan sighed, "So when do I get this gift?"

"When you let me drive."

"So never then."

"Logan." Rogue said, whining slightly.

"You can drive when I'm not in the car." Logan said.

"Yea, I knew ya loved me sugah." Rogue said, grinning.

"God help the poor fools on the road." Logan muttered too softly for Rogue to hear.

* * *

Rogue looked at the Mansion as they drove up the drive. It had been so long since she had seen this place that she had once called home. In so many ways, it still was. This is where the people that she had considered her family lived. But now she had another family in England. A family, that if anything, was actually weirder than the X-Men.

But hey, what's a family without a little weirdness?

As Rogue got out of the car she was given the slightest warning as the air displaced behind her before she was wrapped in a hug.

"Kurt!" she cried out in surprise.

"Vhat?" Kurt said, pulling back with a huge grin on his face.

"Careful with the hugging there. I don't want to be fuzzy." she said, smiling to take the sting out of her words.

"But everyone loves the fuzzy." Kurt said.

Before she could say anything, Kitty was there, hugging her. Then the Professor was at the door and Hank was standing next to him. Jean and Scott appeared from around the side of the house. Ororo wasn't far behind. Even Jamie, looking a whole lot taller than she had expected, came to welcome her back.

It was all a little overwhelming. With all the people surrounding her she began to worry about contact. Logan noticed her checking to make sure she was all covered and pushed the others away.

"Alright, you can all say hi to Stripes later. I want to get rid of these bags of hers. Popsicle!" he yelled at Bobby, "Grab that last bag and bring it up."

The others, unwilling to argue and knowing they'd get to talk to Rogue later began to disperse. Rogue picked up her carry on and followed Logan into the Mansion. She actually got her own room this time. She was lodged with the adult staff of the school and couldn't have been happier.

Bobby came up and set her suitcase on the bed. When Logan's back was turned he gave her a small hug and dashed out before he was told to do anything else. Rogue chuckled and Logan turned around to look at her.

"So, do I get that gift now?"

"Keys." Rogue said, holding out her hand.

Logan pulled off a set of keys from the others and tossed them at her, "Those are for the Jeep. Try not to kill anyone."

Rogue grinned and pocketed them. She turned back to the bed and opened the suitcase that Bobby had brought up for her. Inside, instead of clothes, were a number of carefully wrapped packages. She rummaged through them until she found the one she was looking for and pulled it out.

It was a stuffed wolverine. She had come across it one day and been holding on to it trying to figure out when to give it to him. And cluched in its cloth claws was a package of very nice cigars.

Logan took it and laughed, "You are lucky I like you Stripes or I'd have to kill you."

"You'd try." Rogue said, saiding with her hand on her hip.

"You keep that fantasy of yours kid. I'm going to go smuggle these into my room." Logan said.

Rogue lay down on the bed and sighed. Damn, but she was tired. She closed her eyes for a second, trying to get up the energy to unpack some of her things.

* * *

Kitty phased her head through the door to Rogue's room to see her curled up on the bed among her suitcases.

"She is totally out of it." she said, turning to Kurt.

"Damn. I know she got us gifts. I want to know what."

"Guess we'll just have to be patient."

"But I don't wanna be patient! Patience is a stupid vitue." Kurt whined as they headed towards the kitchen.

"Yea." Kitty said, pulling out the ice cream while Kurt got a couple bowls.

* * *

AN: Hey! So I think I've actually got a pseudo-plot for this story all planned out. If you are a comics fan you probably already got it figured out. This was a little shorter than the other chapters but I liked the way it ended. Anways, thought I'd do a couple shout outs since people have been so awsome about reviewing this.

Bunny Moon - Yes ma'am!

Gentryfey - Yep. Obsidian Butterfly by Lauell K Hamilton is the correct answer. I like that series a lot. Actually, I saw a lot of similarities between the Edward/Anita relationship and the Logan/Rogue one.

DBZpunkchick - hee. Not exactly the fastest update ever but I try.

LizE - Thanks. I'm always a little worried when I start messing with characters that people won't like what I'm doing so its nice to hear that I haven't screwed things up too badly yet.

ishandahalf - hey you! I see you all over the place. I think its really col that you actually like this story. That means a lot. I will be putting in a LOT more Romy-ness. Promise. Probably in the next chapter. Actually, I'm expecting those two to be the main characters. ::crosses fingers:: God knows my stories tend to not always do what I want them to.

Mary - thanks! That is really cool of you.

dragonmage - thanks for that. In a lot of ways, that second chapter was more like a summary. I was thinking about writing it all out but realized I wanted to do other things with the story instead. But I still wanted all that background and time to pass. I'm really glad that people didn't hate it. I was kinda worried.

Rogue4787 - Thank you! I totally understand what you mean. I;m really glad that you did end up liking chapter two. It was a huge experiment for me, something that I've never done before in my writing and I was really wondering if it worked. This chapter was a lot lighter than the last one, even with Irene's death. And somehow I ended it with ice cream again. Don't ask me, I just write this stuff.

Yumiko - hee. Thanks. I'm kinda a hopless romantic at heart but don't tell anyone.

Loup Garou42 - yeppers. The book that I was talking about was Obsidian Butterfly. I wasn't sure if anyone would recognize it or not so major kudos to you. And to be honest, I stuck this in the X-Men:Evo section because thats where I got the idea but Destiny's journals are from the comics. I hope they work out in this universe.

Caliente - ::blushes:: thank you. I'm really amazed that no one yelled at me for rushing through all that background. You are just too cool.


	4. Followers

Rogue made a mental note to remind herself to thank Xavier for giving each of the adult rooms their own bathroom. She had woken up a little while ago and just stepped out of the shower to hear the sound of her phone ringing. She ran out of her bathroom, grabbing the cell phone from where it was nestled on the pile of her clothes and left a trail of water in her wake on the floor. This situation might have been very awkward if she had been running out of one of the shared bathrooms, minus the towel.

"Hello?" she said rather breathlessly.

"Hey Chere. What y' up to?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Rogue said, smiling as she took the phone back into the bathroom with her.

"Ooh. Now y' have gone and gotten Remy's interest."

"Didn't your momma ever tell ya curiosity killed the cat, sugah?" Rogue replied.

"But satisfaction brought it back, mon amie. So what are ya wearin'?

"Water." Rogue said, grinning.

"Anyting else, chere?"

"Nope."

"Merde."

Rogue grinned like the cheshire cat at the silence on the other end of the phone, "Ya still there, sugah?"

"Non. Remy has stepped out. Dis here be his answering machine. Remy'll get back to ya as soon he returns from fantasy land." Came the monotone reply

Rogue chuckled. She hadn't gotten a call from the Swamp Rat in a couple days, which was a long time for them. She had actually begun to get a little worried. It was partially the relief in hearing from him that was causing her to flirt as much as she was right now.

"Well then, I guess that Mr. Lebeu can't come out and play tonight."

"Oh, Remy'll will come out to play. Remy just think that chere is in de wrong city to play wit him."

"Oh. I don't know. Where are ya?"

"Still in de Big Apple. Now the question is where are you?" Remy asked.

"And here I thought you knew everything, Swap Rat. But I hate to get ya hopes up. I ain't in that city." Technically she was in Bayville, "But I got a surprise for ya."

"Oh yea?"

"Yea." Rogue said and then was silent. She wasn't going to say another word until he did.

There was a loud, exaggerated sigh on the other end, "You gonna tell Remy what his surprise is, chere?"

"No. But if you head out to that bluff over looking the city where ya got me drunk the last time we saw each other t'night around 7, ya'll find out."

"Chere wouldn't be planning of sending some one to kidnap dis Cajun and ship him to ya, now would you?" Remy teased her.

"Don't worry, no one is going to be jumping out of the shadows to grab you tonight."

"Bummer." Remy replied.

They continued talking until someone came and banged on her door.

"Another emergency at de House of Rogue?" Remy asked, and Rogue could almost picture his smirk.

"I should probably go deal with this. Call me tonight when you get your surprise." Rogue said.

She hung up the phone and walked over to open her door. On the other side were two very impatient people, with equally pissed off expressions on their faces.

"Are you going to, like, spend the entire day in here or are you going to come out some time." Kitty asked.

"Ya. Ve have been patient enough." Kurt said.

Kitty walked through her as Kurt ported into the room and they looked expectantly at her.

"Sorry?" Rogue said, still not sure how to respond to this sudden invasion.

"You should be." Kitty said, "So..."

Rogue was utterly confused.

"What did you get us?" Kurt finally asked.

Rogue laughed and shook her head. She should have known.

"Greedy little mutants, aren't ya?" Rogue commented, pulling out her suit case.

The first package she pulled out, she tossed to Kurt who eagerly unwrapped it. Inside he found an apron wrapped around a beautifully crafted, leather bound book. The apron was bright red and declared in cheerful writing, 'Devil in the Kitchen'. Kurt laughed. Setting aside the apron he curiously opened up the book and gasped as he recognized it.

"Rogue, where did you get this?" Kurt asked in awe.

"Hey, I was in England. If there is anything that you can't find there, I'll be amazed." Rogue said, still digging in her suitcase for Kitty's gift.

Kitty leaned over Kurt's shoulder, "Is that Hebrew?"

"Ya. Dis is de Bible in it's original language."

"I figured this way ya could confirm all that stuff they tell ya at seminary." Rogue said, finally pulling out another package, "Hey Kits, this ones yours."

Kitty took the package and ripped into it eagerly, pulling out a compact disk, "What's this?"

"I have no clue. If you want I can call Danny and let you talk to him. I just deliver. I believe he said something about just putting it onto your computer..." Rogue looked at the disk helplessly for a second before shrugging.

Kitty looked at the disk in her hand curiously and almost missed the silver necklace that fell out on the same bag. There were two symbols carved on to a thin line of black stone that hung off of the necklace.

"Those are runes. One stands for Pride and the other for Cat." Rogue said.

"Kitty Pryde." Kitty said with a laugh, hugging Rogue, "Mind if I go put this on my computer? I'm really curious."

"Sure. Just don't blame me if it causes weird things to happen." Rogue said.

After Kitty left, Rogue turned to find Kurt reverently turning the pages of the Bible.

"So, I take it ya like it?" Rogue asked, feeling suddenly unsure about the gifts she had chosen for her friends.

"Are you kidding? Dis is the best! Danke!" Kurt said, setting down the book with a grin.

"NO WAY!" came the sudden scream that sounded suspiciously like Kitty.

Kurt teleported instantly and Rogue followed, a grin on her face. She may not have understood what Danny said he put on that disk, but she had a feeling it was any hackers dream come true. Kitty was probably one of the few people that she knew who would understand everything on that disk and appreciate it fully.

Sure enough, she walked in to find Kitty practically bouncing in her seat, talking a mile a minute to Kurt, who, if his expression was anything to go on, had no clue what she was so excited about.

Seeing Rogue, Kitty spun in her chair, "How did you get this? This isn't even supposed to be for sale. And even if it was, it would be so out of my price range. Like tens of thousands out of my price range!"

Before Rogue could even reply, Kitty turned back to her computer and started typing like mad. Rogue could barely make heads or tails of what came up on the screen but she was used to it and didn't try to hard. Kurt was looking over Kitty's shoulder as if he stared hard enough, eventually everything would make sense.

"Hey, I thought you wanted to hang out with me?" Rogue finally said, breaking the silence.

Kitty looked up guiltily at Rogue, then glanced at her computer with a mournful expression before turning back to Rogue. She reminded Rogue of one of the kids back home begging her to let them finish their cartoons before she dragged them out to practice using their powers.

"Fine. I'm going to go deliver the rest of my gifts. When I'm done we'll hang out, okay?" Rogue suggested.

Kitty grinned and nodded. Definitely like the kids back home.

Rogue walked back to her room and pulled out a few more packages. For Xavier there was a small statue of two men, arms clasped, called 'Brotherhood'. It seemed to embody all that Xavier had ever wanted and she had bought it several months ago, knowing someday she'd be able to give it to him. For Ororo there was a small package of seeds that she had picked up. All the seeds were native to the area of Africa Ororo was from and she hoped that they would grow in the greenhouse. For Jean she had found a red glass figuring of a Phoenix, wings spread to fly, rising from the ashes. Something about it had made her get it specifically for the telepath. For Beast she had picked up a large book with the works of several philosophers on the nature of man and a set of chocolate, each piece with the picture of a major philosopher on it. There was something very satisfying about biting the heads of of chocolate versions of Plato and Hobbes. Scott was getting a pair of fuzzy dice for his newest baby out in the garage and a book on the possibility of life on other planets. It was always something he had scoffed at and she thought that maybe she could prove him wrong. She delivered those gifts first, knowing where to find all the people easily enough, handing them out as fast as possible, since it always made her feel uncomfortable listening to people's thanks.

It was weird, being back after so long. So many things were different and so many things were exactly how she remembered them. A lot of the people she had lived here with had moved on, going to college or other things. But some people still remained. But Xavier was still to be found in his office, a calm beacon of confidence. Logan was still prowling around, checking the ground. Ororo was still the voice of reason even though Scott led the team officially now.

But she wasn't the same.

She didn't quite know where she fit anymore. She was no longer a student or an X-Man. She had lived on her own for so long that she no longer felt the need to follow blindly and assume that all was for the best. She had been through too much, seen too much to ever believe that anyone else could ever tell her what was for the best. She had screwed up over the years, made enough wrong decisions to know that all leaders are fallible. It had taken her awhile to realize that. That she wasn't the only one who was unsure about what she was doing and scared at the idea of screwing it all up.

When it had been just her, she hadn't been scared but the first time one of the battered mutants collapsed on her doorstep and she took charge, became responsible for not just her future but theirs as well, she felt that fear. Fear that she would screw it all up and drag all the people who had put their faith in her down as well.

Rogue knew just how unsuitable of a leader she was. She was about the most emotionally unstable person she could think of. She was anti-social and bitchy. Even her mutant power didn't help her. Sure, she could occasionally give people insight into controlling their powers, but she still couldn't even control her own. As for wise advice, the best she could normally manage was to just listen as others poured out their problems to her. She couldn't even understand why people did that. It was one thing to go to someone like Professor Xavier who always seemed to know what was going on, it was another thing to go to Rogue.

Rogue shook her self out of the bout of self-pity she was falling into. It was an old route and she had no doubt that she would walk that path again but that didn't mean that she had to stay there. She was getting better at cutting off the feelings of depression and self-pity before they could take too firm of a hold on her.

Rogue returned to her room. There were a few more gifts for people still stashed in her suitcase but she had taken care of a lot of the major ones. The others would have to wait. Now she just had to tear Kitty away from her computer and track down Kurt so that they could hang out for the rest of the day.

* * *

Rouge was exhausted. She had forgotten how much energy it took to keep up with Kurt and Kitty, especially if either had gotten a hold of sugar. She was getting way too old to be running around town all day. Her old bones just couldn't take this kind of abuse.

She glanced at the clock and groaned. And she was supposed to meet Remy tonight.

Woo hoo, party all day and all night. Riight.

Now if only she could manage to stand up without anything creaking.

Rogue eventually managed to stand up, but her spine cracked loudly, protesting such movement. She stumbled into the shower and let the hot water pound down on her, soothing muscles that were tense from sitting in a car while Kitty drove. And Logan thought she was bad. At least she didn't drive _through_ the other cars an the road.

Eventually she forced herself to turn off the delicious spray of warm water and get ready. Stepping out of the bathroom, she wrapped a towel around herself and dumped all of her clothes out on the floor, looking for something suitable. She wasn't going to dress up, after all, it was not as if tonight was a date. She was just surprising an old friend. But she felt the need to at least look good. Make the stupid Swamp Rat swallow his tongue.

Finally she settled on a pair of faded black jeans. Through the belt loops she threaded a large chain. A tight green, long sleeved shirt was tossed on after this. A silver mesh collar with black bead work was strapped around her throat. After looking at herself critically in the mirror, she ended up painting her nails a chrome silver to match the belt and choker and added some darker color to her lips. The last touch was a pair of black leather gloves that Remy had sent her awhile ago. They were like his, with two fingers on each hand missing.

At first she had been a little worried about wearing them but she a soon fallen in love with them. The uncovered fingers were easily kept away from other people but still allowed her to feel other things, giving her the tactile sensations that she had denied herself before like the feel of a piece of paper or the brush of bark from a tree.

She smiled at herself. She had gained a lot of color to her skin while she was wandering around Europe. People had always mistaken her pallor for make-up in the past but she had just been that pale. She had grown up always covering her skin to protect the people around her and that skin had never seen the light of day. It hadn't been until she started being outside at least twelve hours a day that her arms and legs got uncovered in the presence of the sun. Especially when she had been hiking in the mountains. There she hadn't bothered covering up as much since there simply hadn't been any other people around. Now her skin had a darker flush to it from the kiss of the sun.

Throwing her old brown leather jacket over everything she headed out the door.

She actually managed to make it out of the mansion without being stopped. Several of the younger students had seen her but she didn't know them and they weren't about to stop her. She really didn't want to explain to anyone where she was going or who she was planning on meeting. Logan would probably be able to guess but she doubted the other X-Men had any clue that she was still keeping in contact with their enemy.

She hopped into the jeep that Logan had pointed out to her and tore out of the mansion drive, enjoying the feel of speed. She didn't get to drive that often, she didn't even own a car, and so when she did it was always a thrill.

It was probably because she was enjoying herself so much that it took her so long to notice she was being followed. It took a few random turns to convince her that the white van really was following her but by the time she pulled into the bluffs, she was certain. She parked the car and got out as fast as she could and began walking down the path.

She was actually used to people following her. Some were mutants, trying to work up the courage to talk to her while sometimes it was some oneout for blood, angry at her for something. She was kind of curious to figure out who these guys were. As far as she knew, her "fame" hadn't broken any sort of national barriers, so there was no reason anyone here should be after her.

The van pulled up behind her and stopped. The side door opened and half a dozen men in black masks poured out of the side of the car.

"Shit. Well, I'm going to say these are definitely not the friendly type." Rogue muttered, noticing the guns that were in their hands.

"Halt!" One yelled and they quickly formed a circle around her.

"What can I do for ya, hun?" Rogue asked, glancing at them and letting her curiosity show.

"You are to come with us." The same man said before gesturing to another man, "Go search her car for the books."

"Books? What books are ya lookin' for?" Rogue asked, smiling at the fact that she had one less person to worry about.

"Not your concern. Come on. Into the van." The man barked at her, waving his gun.

Two men walked up behind her and tried to grab her arms.

"Sorrah. I've already made plans for tonight." Rogue said, grabbing the arm of one and swinging him into the other man. Something went whizzing past her ear and she reacted instantly, calling up Colossus's metal skin to protect her. Using Scott's power, she blasted the man who had fired at her while several other bullets bounced off her metal hide. She spun around and hit one of the others who was trying to grab her from behind. She heard a snap as her metal fist connected with the guy's jaw and saw the blood.

Just then another two vans pulled up and even more men came pouring out. Rogue made a decision and ran. She dropped the metal skin and called on Pietro's speed. Already though she could begin to feel the strain of calling up the older powers. None of these people were ones she had touched in years and therefore using their powers was the hardest.

She ran as far as she could before she felt the speed become too much of a drain on her. She knew she couldn't fight off that many people on her own. She needed to conserve her strength and find help. The closest help was hopefully waiting for her on the bluff.

A stray though whispered that the man she was running towards may be responsible for the men with guns. But Rogue ignored it.

Behind her she could hear angry shouting and the sound of booted feet running in her direction.

Up ahead she could finally make out the outline of the bluffs. Her heart sank as she didn't see any one up there waiting. What a day for the Swamp Rat to be late.

She skidded to a halt and looked around frantically for some place to hide. Suddenly somebody grabbed her arms. Rogue screamed and kicked out, sending her attacker back as she added just a touch of super strength. She spun around to face the man that had caught her and gasped.

"Why is it chere, that you always got to beat up on this poor Cajun?" Remy asked with a slight pout, leaning on his bo staff.

"Damnit Remy! You scared meh t' death." Rogue yelled.

"Y' got ta give me a surprise. Remy only figured it be nice t' return de favor." he said with a smirk.

"Ya need to work on your surprises, Swamp Rat!" Rogue shot back.

Remy opened his mouth to respond as a hail of bullets suddenly flew through the clearing where they were talking.

"Merde! I t'aught ya said no one was going t' jump out t' get Remy tonight, chere." Remy said, ducking behind a large tree before charging three playing cards and sending them flying in the direction that the bullets were coming from.

"They're not after you. They're after me." Rogue yelled back over the sound of dirt exploding.

"But dey were definitely shooting at Remy!"

"Shut up at run, Swamp Rat!" Rogue yelled, taking off into the woods.

Remy was at her heels as Rogue ran. Up ahead she saw a large lake and finally got an idea. Grabbing Remy she jumped into the lake.

The men following them ran up to the lake just as the couple disappeared under the water and began fanning out, searching the area. For any trace of them. Several eyed the lake suspiciously but when after ten minutes there was no sign of either of the two people they had been chasing, they left the area.

Rogue waited five more minutes after everyone was gone before raising herself cautiously out of the water. She had called up Aspen's power, which let the girl become and control water. She had switched herself into Aspen's water form and created an air bubble around Remy. After she was sure that her pursuers were gone she raised Remy's air bubble from the lake and deposited him on the land.

Releasing Aspen's power, Rogue collapsed to her knees, panting. She felt like she had just run a marathon and was trying to slow the beating of her heart.

Remy fell on his knees next to her and smiled, "Well, chere, Remy be surprised."

"Good." Rogue panted, "Then it is your turn to save us."

"Damsel's in distress be Remy's specialty." Remy said, standing her up and letting her lean against him.

Rogue let him lead them away and mentally shook her head. This was why she didn't go on vacations. Her vacations were never restful.

* * *

By the time Remy got both of them back to where his bike was parked, Rogue was able to stand on her own. She was still extremely tired but she was also starving. That had always been the result whenever she used other's powers. It was like her metabolism kicked into high gear and if she didn't get some food in her soon she would be doubled over in pain. And then it was too late to eat.

Throwing her the helmet, Remy and Rogue got on his bike. He drove to the closest fast food joint, ordered from the drive through, handed Rogue the bag and sped off again.

Rogue wanted to ask him where they were going but it was impossible to talk and she was too exhausted to even think about telepathy. For the moment she was just going to have to be content with hanging on to him as he smoothly wove the bike through traffic.

Finally they pulled up in front of a rather run down building. While it was by no means a five star hotel, Rogue could tell that it was a clean and comfortable sort of place. It actually reminded her more of her house in England. Remy pulled out a set of keys and had her follow him in to the building and up a flight of stairs. Rogue could smell the burgers in the bag and her stomach was begging her to just rip it open and devour everything inside. Instead she managed to wait until Remy opened an apartment door and ushered her in.

Almost before he closed the door, Rogue had the first burger out and half way gone. Remy knew all about her powers and how they affected her metabolism. He had just never seen the results before. It was truly amazing how quickly the food disappeared. He snatched a french fry and chewed on it as Rogue finished off her third burger and unwrapped the fourth. But she was slowing down and it looked like he might actually be able to get her attention away from the food in front of her.

"So chere, want t' share who be shootin' at Remy?" he asked.

Rogue glared at him as she swallowed before answering, "They weren't shooting at ya. They were shooting at meh."

"Ah. And who were dey?" Remy asked patiently.

The only response he got was a shrug.

"Rogue." Remy said with a sigh.

"I don't know Remy. They just wanted t' take me somewhere. The only other thang anyone mentioned was something about books."

"Books?" Remy asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Don't ask meh. I have no clue." Rogue said, finishing off the last burger with a contented sigh.

"You sure?" Remy asked.

"Hey, I've been in the States for less than 48 hours, sugah. I have no clue who those people were. This is my vacation." Rogue said.

"Vacation? T' see Remy?"

"Don't get too full of you'self Swamp Rat. There's a long list o' people I came back to see." Rogue said.

"But Remy be on dat list, non?" Remy asked with that smirk of his.

Rogue opened her mouth to retort but a huge yawn cut her off.

"Ya weren't kiddin' when ya said usin' other people's powers take it out of ya, Roguey." Remy said.

Rogue glared at the nickname and stood.

Remy stood up as well and led her into another room with a large bed in it, "Ya can crash here tonight."

"I don't wanna kick ya out of your own bed Remy. I can just crash on the couch." Rogue replied sleepily.

"Non. Besides, Remy always wanted t' get ya into his bed." he replied cheerfully.

Rogue frowned, trying to think of a response but her sleep fogged brain refused to cooperate. Instead she settled for a low growl of frustration before collapsing on the sheets. As she drifted off, she felt Remy pull the covers up over her and switched off the lights.

* * *

AN: So I've been reading some awsome Remy fics lately and decided to bring some of the comics characterization of him into this. But that'll come more in the next chapter or so. I actually have about two pages of the next chapter written just because I knew what I wanted to write. Unfortunatly, I promised to update my other fic before I write anymore of this so it'll be a couple weeks before I finish writing that next chapter. As always, I suck at writing fight scenes so I tend to gloss over them. This chapter was a little ackward but I got out what I wanted to say. Probably not all to elequantly but I got it out.

spankychaff - thanks. That is probably the hardest part of writing fanfic is keeping characters "in-character".

khay - you and me both hun. I write more during exams than any other time. Keeps me from going insane. Glad the story keep you sane and happy as well.

Sirsta - I'm glad you like the fact that I'm going kinda slow with the relationship angle. I wanna play some with those two characters and explore some of what makes them tick before I have any great confessions of love.

Panther Nesmith - No Bishop. Promise. I really don't want to deal with all the headache that he can bring into a fic. And hey, this is an Evo fan fic and he doesn't exist in this universe. At least no yet. But Destiny does and therefore Destiny's diaries...

Sunset Rose - Remy is in this chapter. There will be much more of him in the following chapter.

Yumiko - yea, for some reason I was actually picturing some of my reviews when I wrote Kurt's comment...hee hee.

snow queen2 - hopefully the new stuff is as good as the old.

Katrina5 - Wolverine will be a major part of this story (crosses fingers) and I wanted to give his the strong bond with Rogue that I always thought was there in the show and the comics.

Caliente - um...no fireworks yet. Mostly running for their lives...But the fireworks are coming! Promise!

sweet-chick3 - hee hee. Sorry, I understand how bad an addiction to fanfic can be. But I'm really happy that this was one of the stories that brought back the addiction.

Mercurial1 - will do. Hope I can keep you entertained!

Rogue4787 - aw, with awsome reviews like yours I think you'll get more shoutouts. Seroiously, it is really cool when people tell me what they think about the story and the way things are going. It lets me know if I'm getting things across the way I want them to be.

ishandahalf - umm...does this count as ROMY-ness? Can I have a gold star? I did stick in Remy. hee hee. Well, thanks for the review. It actually means a lot from you. I see your name all over the place and I've actually checked out your favorite stories page to look for good stuff to read. Anyways, thanks!


	5. Another day

Rogue woke up with a gasp, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. Suddenly a pair of glowing red eyes appeared in the dark. Instead of screaming, those eyes immediately set her at ease.

She was with Remy.

"Hey." Rogue said.

"Hey chere. You okay?" Remy asked, a small note of concern threading into his voice.

"Yea. Just didn' know where ah was there for a second." Rogue replied.

"Den we go back to sleep, non? It is way to early t' be awake." Remy told her as he closed his own eyes.

Rogue opened her mouth to reply just as the sound of her cell phone ringing burst the relative peace of the moment. Grumbling, Rogue reached and grabbed her jacket off the floor. Retrieving her cell phone for the pocket, Rogue answered.

"Where the hell are you Stripes?" A gruff voice demanded on the other end of the line.

"Logan?" She asked, her sleep fogged brain still trying to deal with being awake.

Her answer came in the form of a low growl.

"Good morning to you too sugah." Rogue replied, stiffling a yawn.

"Where are you?" Each word was carefully pronounced and drawn out as if Logan was speaking to a very slow individual.

"Umm..." Rogue looked at Remy who was pretending to sleep, "I'm not too sure. Just a second and ah'll ask."

Rogue placed her hand over the phone, muffling the angry noises coming from it, and threw a pillow at Remy to get his attention. Remy simply snatched the pillow as it flew at him, never opening his eyes as he did so.

"Where are we?" She whispered.

"We be at Remy's place. But Remy don't think he be wantin' ya to go tellin' the grump on de phone where dat is."

"Well at least tell me what city we're in!" Rogue ground out.

"New York, of course."

Rogue glared at the cocky Cajun, seeing his lips stretch into an insolent smirk as she uncovered the phone, "Logan? Ah'm in New York."

"You're with Gumbo, aren't you?" Logan accused.

"Yea." Rogue replied, choosing to add as little to this conversation as possible.

"Ask the thief if he knows why there were a bunch of people trying to sneak into your room last night." Logan growled out.

"What?" Rogue sat up.

"You had some unfriendly visitors last night. Seemed intent on getting into your room. Know why, darlin?"

"Shit." Rogue swore, "Logan, Ah'm on mah way back. We'll talk then."

"Hurry your butt up before I come find you." Logan said before hanging up.

"Problems at home, chere?" Remy drawled out the question.

"Yea. Someone tried to break in to the Institute last night. Specifically mah room. You know somethin' about this, Swamp Rat?" Rogue asked, struggling out from under the covers of the bed.

"Non. Remy didn' even know cher was home till last night." Remy said, finally opening his eyes, "Besides, if Remy had wanted somethin' from your room, Remy nevah would have been caught."

Rogue laughed, throwing the other pillow at him since she no longer needed it. This one actually hit. Remy gave her an offended look as he stood up from his chair.

* * *

There was a brief struggle for the keys to Remy's bike, but Remy refused to let Rogue drive his baby. Rogue lost the fight with as much grace as she could, settling for sticking her tongue out at him when his back was turned.

They drove to where her jeep was parked first. After going over it, between the two of them they decided that it hadn't been tampered with. But just in case, Remy offered to follow her back to the Institute. Rogue smiled, accepting.

Outside the school gates, Rogue stopped the jeep with a relieved sigh. Nothing had malfunctioned on her way home so she figured she'd say good-bye to Remy. As she opened the door, Remy pulled up along side her and got off his bike.

"Thanks Remy. I'd invite you is but..." Rogue gave a small, helpless shrug.

"No problem, cher. Remy understand." Remy said with a smirk, "So did y' have fun?"

"Fun?" Rogue asked, confused.

"On de date, cher."

"Date?" Rogue wasn't doing well in this conversation - she seemed to just keep repeating whatever Remy said.

"Last night. Our date. Did y' have fun?" Remy asked, clearly enjoying her confusion.

"That wasn' a date, ya dumn Swamp Rat!" Rogue yelled in shock.

"Non? Chere told Remy to meet her under de moonlight in der special spot. Remy bought y' dinner an' den Rogue spent de night wit' Remy. How's dat not a date?" Remy asked, fake innocence oozing out of him.

"We were runnin' for our lives and you bought me McDonald's hamburgers!" Rogue retorted.

"Cher, cher, cher. You be avoidin' Remy's question. Y' have fun last night?" Remy said, shaking his head.

Rogue just glared at him, trying to think of something to say, amusement and anger warring in her in a way that only happened when she was talking to Remy. Finally amusement won and she laughed.

"Yea sugah, I had fun." Rogue admitted.

"Good. Though, Remy admits dat de date wasn't de greatest, considering' de people wit' the guns. Next time, Remy gets to pick de night's entertainment." With a wink, he hopped back on to his bike.

"Wait! Next time?" Rogue said, bewildered again.

Remy just chuckled and put on his helmet and gunned his bike before driving off the way they'd come.

"Stupid Cajun." Rogue muttered, getting back into the jeep and driving it up to the school.

Logan stood on the front step, arms folded as he glared at her. Rogue knew that he could smell Remy on her and that he disapproved but they had already had this argument, several times, and she knew that he wasn't going to bring it back up again. At least not yet. She hated the fact that Logan didn't approve of Remy and he knew that. Logan was more than just a friend to her and his approval meant a lot to her but for some reason she just wasn't willing to give up the Cajun's friendship. Maybe it was stupid, maybe Logan was right and the thief couldn't be trusted, but it was something that she wanted. And if it was a mistake, it was her mistake, freely made with eyes wide open. There was something very refreshing about that.

"You okay, Stripes?" Logan asked as she walked up.

"Yea. Long night. Think I might have met the guys who were tryin' ta get in here las' night."

Logan just raised an eyebrow at her and she told him what had happened last night. She told him as much as she could remember and explained why she had ended up spending the night at Remy's.

"Books?" Logan asked.

"Ah've been thinkin' about that." Rogue said, thinking, "The only books I could think of that I have are a couple paperbacks back in England. Nothing that anyone couldn' find at any bookstore. But I did get Irene's diaries. Maybe there was something in them that someone wanted. After all, she was involved with people like Mystique. Maybe that's what they are after."

Logan nodded, "Where are they?"

"In my room." Rogue replied.

"We should take a look at them, see if there's anything in there that people would want." Logan suggested.

"I don't know. That's the thing. I was reading them earlier, but parts are written in another language. I don't recognize it. Maybe you will." Rogue said, heading up towards her room.

"What if we grab those books and go talk to Chuck. He might recognize it or know something that would explain this." Logan said, following her up the stairs.

In her room, Rogue grabbed her carry-on bag and did a quick check to make sure all the books were still there. Together, Rogue and Logan went in search of Xavier. They found him in his office, looking over some papers.

"Ah. Logan. Rogue. How may I help you?" The Professor asked as they came in.

"We think we might know what those guys were after last night, Chuck." Logan began before retelling the Rogue's story.

"Hmm. May I see one of these diaries?" Xavier asked Rogue.

Rogue grabbed one of the latest diaries, almost entirely written in the strange language, and handed it over. Xavier took it and carefully opened it. He studied several pages, flipping through them and stopping occasionally.

"Interesting. This isn't anything I recognize. With your permission Rogue, I'd like to let Hank take a look at this. He may be able to decipher the writing here." Xavier asked.

Rogue looked at the book, hating to let it out of her sight now that she knew people wanted it but still knowing that they needed Beast's help and that meant let letting him have at least one diary for a while.

"Rogue, I can promise you that we will do our best to make sure that no harm comes to the diaries while they are in our care." Xavier said, sensing his old student's hesitation.

Rogue looked Xavier in the eye and nodded, "I know Professor. I've think I've just gotten paranoid over the years."

Logan snorted at that and Rogue glared.

In the end she gave Beast three of the books. The first and the last of the set, plus one of the middle ones. The rest she kept, planning on reading the parts that she could in the library. She had gotten through most of the first one on the plane so she didn't think that she'd be too lost reading the second. Beast had promised to return the books as soon as he had scanned all the pages into the computer. He didn't actually need the books themselves after that. He had suggested leaving the entire collection with him but Rogue just couldn't bring herself to do that. She didn't understand it, but she knew that these were important and there was a reason Irene had left them with her.

* * *

Rogue didn't know how long she spent in the library, pouring over Irene's diaries. She was frustrated by the vague hints in the parts that she could understand. She was able to piece together that the journals took place over a relatively short amount of time - just over a year. Each book seemed to represent a new month.

13 journals. 13 months. Starting when Irene was 13 years old.

Now if only 13 wasn't considered an unlucky number.

What Rogue could read described a terrified young girl, slowly losing her sight and suddenly being flooded by images that appeared in her mind. No one was able to explain what was happening to her. There was no Xavier or Magneto to swoop to the rescue and explain what she was becoming. There was no one to help her through it at all and the young teenager was forced to deal with everything on her own.

Apparently Irene was experiencing some sort of black outs as well during this time because her writing also indicated some confusion over what she had written. Lines like,

'_2 days! I've been out of it for 2 days now and all I have to show for it is more of this weird writing about...well, that stuff in my head. At least, that's what I think its about._'

were regularly scattered through the books.

With a sigh, Rogue finally got up and stretched. She grimaced as her joints popped back into place. Deciding she needed a breath of fresh air, Rogue collected the books and threw them back into her carry-on and headed outside.

As she walked out onto the grounds she was surprised to see the sun had long since set and the stars were beginning to appear. With a guilty thought, she realized she should have called home to check on things today. She wasn't really worried, they had her cell number and the number of the Institute if they needed her, but she was worried about what might be happening to her house while she was away. Memories of other's parties that had been thrown by teenagers when the adults were away, especially one famous one thrown by the X-Men, flitted through her mind.

As she was standing there, she looked up and saw a raven circling in the sky. Its black wings seemed to absorb the last remaining light of the day into them and she wondered what type of prey it was circling.

"Rogue!" Logan's gruff voice yelled from inside the house, pulling her attention away from the bird above.

Rogue took one last breath of the night air before heading back in to the house to talk to Logan.

"Hey Stripes," Logan said as soon as he saw her, "Blue said he was done with these and you can have them back."

Rogue took back the three diaries and added them to the rest. With a small yawn, she decided that it was time to call it a night and head to bed. She could tackle the weird mysteries tomorrow.

* * *

Rogue sleepily reached out for her phone and pulled it into the warm nest of blankets with her.

" 'ello?" She answered, never once opening her eyes.

"Hello chere." From the other end of the line came the entirely too cheerful voice of a certain Cajun.

"Remy?" Rogue asked in disbelief, groggily opening her eyes to glance at the clock, "Remy, it's 3 in the mornin'. This better be a bloody emergency or I'm goin' ta kill ya."

"Aw Roguey. You aren't asleep already? And here I though y' be a night owl like Remy." Rogue swore she could see the stupid smirk on his face.

"Remy..." Rogue growled into the phone, too tired to think of a good threat.

"An' after Remy went snoopin' for y' an' averyt'ing."

"Snoopin'?" Rogue asked, waking up a little.

"Yep. Found out some interestin' stuff dat I t'ink y' might want t' know." Remy's voice was now serious and Rogue was fully awake.

"What?"

"Not over d' phone chere. Remy not sure he trust it." Rogue's eyes widened at that.

"Where and when." She asked, already fighting to untangle herself from the sheets.

"Remy thinkin' now be good." At that Rogue was able to roll free and looked out her window to see a familiar motorcycle at the Institute gates.

"Be right down." Rogue said, turning off the phone and grabbing the pair of jeans that she'd worn earlier that day from the floor. She grabbed her jacket and, as a last thought, the carry-on bag with the diaries before leaving. Using a touch of both Jean's and Kitty's powers, Rogue phased through the wall and flew towards Remy, landing behind him on the bike.

Remy just shook his head and threw her a helmet before taking off into the night.

* * *

Rogue sat and looked out over the sea. Next to her sat Remy. Behind them stretched out a graveyard, rows of solemn blocks of stone silently bearing witness to an old loss and the pain that came with it. They had driven here, Remy taking side roads and round about ways to get there to make sure they weren't being followed.

"So, what did ya find out?" Rogue asked.

"Remy did some checkin' today. Wanted to know who was doin' all de shootin'. And I heard about Irene." Remy sad, sympathetically, "Dat why you be back in town chere?"

Rogue nodded, not sure how to respond to the concern she saw in those serious red eyes.

"I t'ink Irene was murdered." Remy said.

"What?" Rogue asked, confused.

"De cops didn' look dat hard into her death but Remy t'ink she was poisoned. Remy took a look at de autopsy report once he found out that she died. Irene was one healthy fille. She had no reason to just die like dat." Remy explained.

"But...then why ain't the cops lookin' into it?" Rogue asked angrily.

"Because dey t'ink she was a sick lady dat didn't tell no one she was sick. She had been havin' some health problems recently accordin' t her doctor. She had been making sure her will an' evert'ing was in order recently. She even had her lawyer start takin' care of t'ings before she was even dead." Remy answered.

Rogue listened, stunned, "But...I thought ya said she was healthy? What were the health problems that she had?"

"I don't know, cher. De doctor dat gave dat report is gone missing on Remy. No one knows where de man gone to and the police reports all just say dat de woman had miscellaneous health issues recently. Dey figured dat she knew she was goin' t' die soon and was just takin' care of t'ings herself rather than tell people she be sick."

"She was a precog. She probably did...Oh my Gawd. Remy, she knew she was going ta be murdered and all she did was arrange her will." Rogue said, getting lost in her own thoughts as she tried to absord everthing Remy had just said.

"Der be more chere." Remy said, recapturing her attention.

"What?"

"De neighbors, dey seen a lot of strangers in white vans down der for awhile around de time dat Irene died. Strangers dat seemed awfully curious about d' dead woman's family and friends."

"Those men last night." Rogue stated, knowing it had to be them, whoever they were.

Rogue stared at the sea, taking in what Remy had said and turning it over in her mind to try and catch all the implications of it. She could feel the weight of the cemetery at her back but she refused to turn away from the swelling waves crashing against the rocks again and again. Somewhere, in another cemetery, Irene lay under one of those blocks of stone. It suddenly seemed wrong that she didn't know where that particular marker was or even what was written upon it. Was it just a name and a couple dates? Was there anything to indicate to those passing the sheer importance of the woman who once foretold the future? Or was it just as forgettable as all the others?

And were her real parents out there somewhere, dead as well – in similarly unknown tombs like Irene?

"Remy?"

"Yea chere?"

"Do you know who you're parent's were?" Rogue asked.

"Non. Remy just know the people that adopted him." Remy replied, seemingly unphased by the change in topic.

"Me either." Rogue said, before adding quietly, "I guess ah never really...cared...until right now."

"Why's that chere?"

"I'm not sure. But I wonderin' if they ever loved me and why they gave me up. Where they are now. That kinda thang."

"Remy's pretty sure that his parents gave him up wit out t'inking too hard about it. De amazin' thin' is dat de just didn't kill 'im when de first saw his eyes." Remy said, trying to make it sound light hearted but Rogue heard the old pain in his voice.

"Ah can't understand that. Ah love your eyes. They make you, you. And you were their child. All the more reason to love 'em."

"Rogue, people count der chill'en's fingers and toes just to make sure dat de be normal. Remy doubt anyone'd want a child wit eyes like Remy's."

"What about your foster-father?"

"Jean-Luc? He be special, non? It be a miracle that Remy ever meet his pere. Remy probably still be livin' on de streets if Jean-Luc hadn't found 'im."

"Ah doubt that. Ya got a way of charmin' yourself into anyplace ya want t' be." Rogue said with a small grin.

"Remy learned dat from his pere though, non? De streets are not dat easy to escape from." Remy said, shaking his head solemnly.

"What was it like?" Rogue asked hesitantly.

"Dat be an awfully personal question chere."

"Ya don't have to say if ya don't want."

Remy glanced at her quickly before looking back out over the sea, "De streets were bad. Remy was cold an' hungry all de time. And der was always someone bigger and stronger, ready t' take anyt'ing you might have. Livin' like dat ain't good for anyone. Remy done a lot dat he's not proud of in his past and a lot of it was on de streets, tryin' to survive. Jean-Luc seemed like a godsend t' Remy an' most o' de happiest times of my life be while livin' under dat roof. Remy almos' wish he could go back der."

"I'm sorry." Rogue said, knowing enough from previous conversations with Remy to know that for some reason New Orleans was closed to him.

"Non. Not'in' for you t' be sorry about."

"Ah shoul'n't have brought it up."

"Remy didn' have to answer your question, chere."

Rogue looked at the man sitting next to her. He was that same dashing flirt of a Cajun that everyone else saw, but she knew that it was just a mask. Underneath, peaking out was a lost and frightened little boy. She could see that little boy more clearly as he talked about his days on the street than ever before. There were things going on behind those enigmatic eyes of his, memories of pain that he wasn't willing or able to share with her. Things that were making his confident mask slip a little and show more vulnerability than ever before.

Rogue knew that for anyone, Remy's life would be a hard one to live but for him, with his empathy, it had to be so much harder. To actually feel the full extent of the hatred and loathing others felt for mutants, to feel all the pain and anguish in the people around him. It was amazing to her that he was still sane.

In so many ways they were two sides of the same coin. They were unwanted by their biological parents, fostered by criminals that tried to pass of their sins to their adopted children. And both of their powers allowed them insights into humanity that others were lacking. With a simple touch, Rogue could know a complete stranger more intimately than her oldest friend. And no one, no matter how hard they tried, would ever be able to fool Remy about how they really felt, no matter what pretty words of eloquent actions they put out for the rest of the world to see. He would always feel the truth.

She had thought once, back in England, that this was the reason he flirted with anything that moved. Where Rogue pushed others away, Remy had pulled people closer, desperately seeking acceptance and love from those around him. He flirted with girls, and even the occasional guy, and had all sorts of casual flings so that he could feel that acceptance, if only for a moment.

It scared her to think of him as a child of the streets. There were too many people who would not hesitate to prey on a child like him. She had a feeling that someone had, at least once, in his past. She wanted to kill the person that had done that to him, that had broken some part of him so badly that even now she could tell it wasn't completely mended.

Rogue looked away from Remy to stare beck out at the sea. Silently she sent out a prayer, like she had done every day for the kids she had back in England, that she would not be the one to fail him next. That by helping her, she wasn't going to dump all her problems in his lap and add any more pain to his life.

Together they sat and watched the sun come up over the sea.

Another day.

* * *

AN: Okay, first of all, I'm going to send out a HUGE thank you to Mercural1 who voluteered to beta for me. She is super awsome and made this chapter so much better. All mistakes are totally mine, probably cheerfully put in by me after she spent all the time taking fixing my old ones.

Blink182dbzluver - not sure this counts as a fast update. But hey, its an update.

khay - hee. Glad you liked that scene there. I kept having this image of Remy and Rogue yelling at each other and ignoring the bad guys while writing it.

sweet-chick3 - thanks! I love fan fics but it seems that occasionally the only way to find what I really want to read is to write it myself. Which sucks, because I don't want to do all the work. sigh Oh well, at least other people seem to be enjoying this too.

ishandahalf - ooh, you know, you keep waving those stars at me and I'm going to take a lesson from Remy and just steal them. I think that would be easier. As for a Remy POV...you'll just have to wait and see evil laughter

Katrina5 - thanks! I love it when people are enjoying my stories. Glad you like the characters so far!

Panther Nesmith - Dude! So I just realized that you are the author that had me crying the other night! Your story 'Gone to the Movies' was brutal. Anyways, I think you are now on my favorites list

Rogue4787 - um...the Collosus power thing. I didn't think of it when I was writing it. And then your comment got me thinking. Collosous's clothes don't rip when he changes. Why do Rogue's? And I definaltly remember her clothes being all torn up in the show...Male sexist plot? hee hee. Sorry, too more Feminist Political Theory for me lately.

snow queen2 - Thank you!

JerseyGirl03 - I will try to update soon. But, as much as I love this story, I promised myself I would finish my SM fic someday so I have to write a chapter of that before I can write another chapter of this.

Mercurial1 - Once again I grovel at you feet and say thank you.


	6. Revelations

Rogue snuck back into the mansion early that morning, trying not to disturb the people in the house who had actually spent the night sleeping rather than running about with a certain thief.

She felt wiped. Both physically and emotionally exhausted by everything. All she wanted to do was collapse into her bed and spend several blissful hours dead to the world.

Apparently the universe had another plan.

Sitting on her bed was a small white envelope with her name written on it. Inside was a piece of paper with a time and address written on it and nothing else. Rogue knew that it wasn't from any of the X-Men. They would have signed their names or just told her themselves instead of writing a note, and she had just seen Remy so she doubted it was from him.

Rogue searched her room for any other little "gifts" or clues as to who sent her the note. After finding nothing she sighed and glanced at the clock. If she was going to go to this mysterious meeting, she had to leave in less than two hours. If she tried to grab a hour of sleep, she just be worse off than if she stayed up.

Rogue sighed and headed towards the shower. Maybe breakfast and a lot of coffee would be enough to keep her functioning for a little while longer.

* * *

Downstairs, after showering, Rogue found Logan glowering at the coffee maker, watching the drips of dark liquid fall into the pot underneath with agonizing slowness. It made her smile to see the man that struck such fear into people's hearts glaring at an unaffected coffee maker.

Logan was truly an amazing individual. He was just as scary of a person to cross as his attitude suggested but there was another side to him. A side that made you desperately want this man as your friend and not just an ally. There was a wicked sense of humor and a kindness buried under the hardened warrior.

She never failed to be shocked by the way that, even covered in dirt and blood, he could inspire trust in children. It was like they saw straight through the harsh exterior to the soul inside and knew that they would find shelter there from all the world's pains. She still remembered how, a year ago, they had found a little girl, no older than five, caught in one of the mutant riots. Her purple hair had given her away as a mutant and the mob had been chasing her down. She had run straight to Logan like a compass needle pointing north and clung to him. Even after they had gotten the situation under control she had refused to relinquish her death grip on the older man. And Logan hadn't tried to force her to let go. He had just accepted her needing him with that silent wisdom of his. For a week they had been inseparable. And when they had found out that the girl was from the local orphanage, it was Logan who had called Xavier and told him, not asked but told, that Xavier would be getting things arranged for her to live at the school.

And it was no coincidence that Logan always seemed to have his own special herd of students following him. For someone who was at heart a loner, he "adopted" more children than anyone other than Xavier.

Rogue grabbed a cup and quickly snatched the pot, putting her cup under it to catch the still falling liquid from the machine.

"Hey!" Logan growled out at her, "Stripes, just because I love ya darlin' doesn't mean I won't kill you for stealing my coffee."

Rogue laughed and poured the coffee from the pot into a second mug, which she then presented to Logan with a flourish.

"I would never dream of stealing another man's caffeine."

Logan just grabbed the mug from her and took a sip, still watching her as if he still wasn't sure she wasn't going to try and steal his coffee from his hands. As Rogue tried to coax the coffee maker to work faster, she glanced at Logan.

She was glad to have been this man's friend. He had taught her so much over the years. How to fight, how to drink and even how to just deal with life. That last one was the hardest thing to teach and the most important thing a person could ever learn. Not to mention he had forced her to learn Japanese. There were some stories the old man refused to tell in any other language. Truthfully, she had sped up her learning time through use of her powers but it had still taken his prompting to make her want to learn.

And it had been worth it. Logan told great stories.

When the coffee maker had finally produced enough of the dark fluid of life to fill another mug, Rogue filled hers and sat down at the table across from Logan who had started reading the morning paper.

She should probably take someone with her when she left. That would be the smart, responsible thing to do after all. Especially when one was going to a secret meeting with an unknown person or persons for an unknown reason. Actually, the real question was why the heck she was going. After all, if any of her kids had tried to do anything this stupid she would have read them the riot act for weeks.

So. Okay, in the interest of being a good role model (even though none of her kids were even in this country to see her make the attempt) she would take back up with her on this meeting. And taking Logan as back up was seeming like a wonderful idea. At least that was what her brain, now nourished by heavenly java juice, was telling her.

Rogue shook her head in exasperation at her own thoughts. She only got this eloquent when she was really bloody tired or drunk. And though she was on a liquid diet today it seemed, the drug in the liquid was more of the caffeine variety than the alcoholic type.

Stimulants. No depressants. Depressants bad.

Alright, so the higher brain functions were still not working properly. All the more reason to bring someone with her.

"Hey." Rogue said, kicking Logan lightly under the table to get his attention.

Logan looked up, eyebrows raised in silent query.

"You got any plans today?" Rogue asked.

"Nothing that can't be put off. You need something, darlin'?" he asked, putting down the paper.

"Yea. Take a look at this." Rogue said, pulling out the note from her back pocket and tossing it across the table.

Logan scanned the paper quickly before looking back at her, "You know who sent this?"

"Not a clue." Rogue said, taking another sip of her coffee.

Logan looked at her for a second, thinking, before nodding, "When did you want to head out?"

Rogue smiled at the easy acceptance Logan gave the whole situation. Partly it came from being an X-man. No one could live like they did and get too excited over something like an anonymous note. But a lot of it was just the fact that they knew each other. They had worked together before and each knew how the other one thought. Logan knew she was going to go and the only reason he was seeing the note was because he was being invited along.

Rogue glanced at her watch, "Leave in a half an hour?"

"Sounds good to me." Logan said, returning to his paper as Rogue got up to refill her mug. She definitely needed more coffee in her system if she was going to be staying awake for what was coming. After all, it didn't look good for the heroes to fall asleep during the bad guys' speech about world domination or whatever it was the bad guys were going to be babbling about this time.

* * *

Rogue and Logan left without telling anyone else. Logan understood why without having to ask. She had a new life, one away from the mansion, with its own responsibilities and problems. And those problems were no longer automatically the problems of the X-Men. Logan could understand that. He also had a life outside of the X-Men, one that he didn't always want them to be a part of. And so they left without telling anyone they were leaving or why. Hopefully they would be back before anyone decided to come looking for them.

The place they were headed was close to the old Brotherhood house. The Brotherhood had moved out of that house a long time ago, but Kitty had told her that Lance had bought the place and still owned it. Something about protecting it from people who wouldn't appreciate the house's unique character. Rogue had smiled when she heard this. It was something so typically Lance. Covering up his sentimentality with a joke. But she was glad that the old house was owned by Lance. She had some fond memories of living there despite all the bad. Maybe someday she and Lance could fix the place up a little, kind of as a thank you to the house that had taken in the world's misfits and sheltered them.

Logan grunted and pointed his head at the place they were headed. He had recognized the address earlier of where they were going as an old empty lot. It looked just as he had described. The grass and trees had long been dug up, leaving nothing but trash and dirt to accumulate.

Rogue slid off her bike, removing her helmet as Logan got off his bike. She loved Logan's bike. It was a beautiful machine, full of power and grace. Not, she thought looking down at the bike she had been on with a small smile, that Scott had bad taste in bike either. Logan took off his helmet, and looked over at her. She always thought it was great that Logan wore a helmet. He claimed it was because it was the law and he didn't want to have to deal with some traffic cop and tickets. But Rogue suspected that it was really that Logan, even though he could heal from anything, didn't want to take any more wounds than he had to. After all, just because the man could heal, didn't mean he couldn't feel. And Rogue knew from person experience that blows to the head hurt like hell. She knew if their roles were reversed, she would put as much padding between her and the world as possible.

Rogue, without thinking, summoned Logan's powers in her and sniffed the air, trying to scent out who had been in the area recently and if anyone was nearby now. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Logan doing the same thing and almost laughed at the picture they must present.

The air was full of the overwhelmingly sweet smell of rotting garbage. It masked the subtler smells that would have told her who or what was in the area. Rogue gave up with a frustrated snort. She was not good at reading the world through smell. Maybe Logan would be able to make out something she couldn't. It was one of his specialties after all.

Everywhere there were signs of scavengers. Rats darted through the shadows while crows circled over head. Rogue squinted up at the birds. One of those was too big to be a crow. It must be a...

Raven.

Mystique landed, changing her form while still in mid air in a move that Rogue couldn't help but admire. She knew for a fact that doing a trick like that and making it look as easy as walking took a good measure of pure grace and skill. The first time she had tried to do it, she had managed to land flat on her face, but not before knocking over a table and shattering several glasses.

"Mystique." Rogue said, trying to hide her disgust.

"Rogue." The woman nodded to her, before nodding at her companion, "Logan. Thank you for coming."

Rogue snorted, "Yeah, well, curiosity was always one of mah vices. What do ya want?"

"I need to talk to you about Irene." Mystique answered, a flash of remorse crossing her features at the mention of the dead woman, "You received her journals?"

"How...? Never mind, yea. Ah have her journals. Ya can't have 'em." Rogue said, wondering anew about those books.

Mystique sneered, "I never want to see those things again in my life. They are cursed. They ruined more lives than you can imagine."

Rogue started at the anger in the blue woman's voice, "What do ya mean?"

"I came here to warn you, Rogue. Those books hold Destiny's prophesies. In them is the future of the world. The entire future is written down up to and beyond the end of the world."

"Wait! The end of the world? What are ya talkin' about?" Rogue interrupted.

"Destiny saw there was an apocalypse coming. Soon. The end of the world. And after that, the world was reborn." Mystique took a deep breath, meeting Rogue's eyes, "Irene died, knowing she would die that day at the hands of people who were coming for those journals. That is how you got them."

"Irene...knew?" Rogue asked, already knowing the answer.

A strange look passed Mystique's face, "Yes. If she had told me before...But she didn't. Instead she wrote me a letter, telling me. And so I have come to warn you. I would have destroyed those journals but they are yours now. Along with the future of the world."

With that Mystique turned to leave.

"Wait!" Logan growled out, "Why don't you want something like that?"

The other woman half turned back, looking over her shoulder at them, "I worked for over ten years with Irene to stop some of the prophesies in those books from coming true and it destroyed any happiness my life may have had. I have too many regrets to take even one more step down the path to hell those books represent."

With that the other woman walked away, disappearing as she changed form into a cat and sauntered off.

* * *

Logan and Rogue ended up sitting outside the Mansion on the front steps. Rogue wasn't willing to go back yet and face anyone and Logan was worried about her.

"What are you going to do kid?" He asked, glancing over at her.

"I don't know. If what Mystique said was true than those books are important but...And someone is after them which means it is only a matter of time before they track me down." Rogue said, staring out over Xavier's perfectly kept estate.

"Having the future written out ahead of time is a big weapon." Logan pointed out.

"I know. Which means that they can't fall into the wrong hands." Rogue agreed.

"Now darlin', don't go takin' this the wrong way but who would you trust the future to? Who's the right hands?" Logan asked, lighting a cigar as he waited for her to answer.

Rogue fidgeted slightly as she struggled to take in everything Logan's comment had just implied. The books were given to her by Irene, who was killed by someone who was after them. But Mystique seemed to think that the books were too dangerous for anyone to have. Which is why Irene sent them to Rogue and not Mystique. But if Mystique was the one advocating their destruction, what did that mean? The shape shifter was a confusing one, her motives were never clear and her plans so multi-layered that one was never sure when you had gotten to the bottom of one. Was Mystique manipulating her in some larger game or was she truly leaving the game like she said she was?

Rogue didn't know enough. She wanted to talk to Mystique more but the shape shifter had said all she was willing to say. Rogue couldn't help but wonder if the other woman was still acting out some small part as dictated by Destiny's prophesies.

A part of Rogue, the child she had been, wanted to believe that she could trust the X-Men with this. They were her family and the "good guys". But she had grown up and learned some harsh truths about the world. She knew the lines were never clear. And if she was being honest, they never had been. She had a history herself of playing on multiple sides depending on the situation. She had started out with the brotherhood, and then joined the X-Men when Mystique screwed up and her lies got revealed. But she still had fond memories of the Brotherhood and could never make them the "enemy" in her head. They were always people, old friends and allies, to her. And then there were Magneto's Acolytes, another group that were never simply the "bad guys", but rather individual people.

A lot of this she blamed on her mutation. Having people's memories, motivations and emotions pour into her made it impossible to think of someone one-dimensionally. There were all these extra little facets to their characters that made it impossible to keep things neat and clean. It was one of the reasons Rogue had always liked to study history. Historians often would give you a simple, clear cut answer to any question you asked. But if you asked the right questions you were suddenly flooded with the thousands of tiny little factors and the individual people's contributions to any one historical event till you were forced to acknowledge that there was too much going on at anyone time to ever truly understand why something happened just the way it did. It let Rogue know that she wasn't the only one confused by people as she listened to historians argue over some ancient leader's motivations for attacking his neighbor.

If she was going to be honest, she knew that the best thing in to do, if Mystique was telling the truth, was destroy those books. But she couldn't. They were the true legacy of the woman who had raised her and she wanted to read them. To understand why Mystique had done the things she had, to know the truth about the world and the X-Man in her wanted to save the world. And knowing the future was the best way to do that. Right?

Rogue sighed and shook her head, "I don't know. I just...don't know."

* * *

Rogue walked quietly down the hall. Hank was somewhere down here, translating a book that she no longer was sure should be translated.

Walking into his office, she found him surrounded by piles of books and papers in something that could only be described as organized chaos. Hank was sitting in the middle of it all, absorbed in the papers he was reading and absent mindedly eating a sandwich.

Rogue cleared her throat and smiled as the large man jumped.

"Rogue!" Hank exclaimed, "I did not hear you come in. Please, take a seat."

Rogue glance around and eventually excavated a chair out from the pile of books that it had previously disappeared under. Plopping down, she glanced at the books she had just moved. Many were medical text with such long titles that Rogue feared what was written inside. A few papers had notes and pictures scribbled in the margins, completely undecipherable to anyone who wasn't a large, blue mutant genius in a lab coat.

"Rogue, I am sorry to say that I have no knew information on the journals you brought me. They are a complex make-up of several languages and codes that will take me quite a while to unravel. It will be a challenge." Beast said, looking rather pleased with the puzzle he had been given.

Rogue smiled at her old friend wryly. He was enjoying having a puzzle to solve that did not have life or death consequences, she could tell. And she was about to take that nice, safe puzzle away and replace it with something dangerous to the world.

"Hank, I was wondering if you could...hold off on the research for a while." Rogue began cautiously.

"If I might ask, why? Earlier you seemed eager to understand these books." Hank asked, peering at her and a thoughtful look crossed his face. "Might this have anything to do with the intruders last night?"

"I think they were after the books." Rogue admitted.

"But then, logically speaking, it would be even more urgent for us to decipher these books to find out why they are wanted. Unless there is more that I am missing?" Hank asked calmly.

Rogue looked at Beast's large blue frame and made a quick decision, "Hank...I found out that those books...They are Destiny's predictions."

Hank nodded, "Ah, I see. And those people after them wish to read what the seer had to say. Do you by any chance know how far Destiny was able to see into the future?"

Rogue looked grimly at her friend, "Till the end of the world."

* * *

Hank agreed to stop researching the texts till she asked otherwise. He was able to understand how dangerous such information could be. How even knowing how the future will go may destroy it.

But he also encouraged her to speak to Professor Xavier. Rogue wanted to, but a part of her wondered if the Professor would be able to understand the dangers of the future. What if it said somewhere that one of the X-Men died? Would Xavier be able to let that happen if he could stop it?

Could she?

Should she?

Everybody had to die eventually. Did she really want to know when her friends and family would die? Even if it was of old age, in their beds after a long and happy life. Did she really want it spelled out for her exactly how much time she had with them?

But what if the future needed to be changed? What if that was why Irene had sent her the journals? She and Mystique had worked for years trying to change the future. Wasn't that an indication that they felt it needed to be changed? Was it horrible? So horrible that any future was better?

Shouldn't the end of the world be fought against?

Rogue looked down at her gloved hands. Slowly, she pulled one off and felt the air touch her hand. Staring at her hand she wondered if other people appreciated the abilitly to touch the world. Not just other people, but the air as the wind pushed it through the grass or the page of a book as you turned the page. It had taken her months to be able to function with gloves on. People "saw" as much of the world with their hands as with her eyes she felt sometimes. In a way, that meant she was half blind. Simple things like how much pressure to apply when holding a potato chip, something most people didn't even consider, with her gloves on became difficult.

Staring at her hand she wondered if the fact that she was half blind in the world made her a better or worse person to decide the fate of the world?

* * *

AN: So I refound this story and added a new chapter to it. Sorry about being a slow author and all that. I also went through the other chapters and touched them up. What can I say, I'm a Poli Sci major on the night of the election. I need something to take my mind off the coming civil war.


End file.
